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LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,   N.  J. 
Presented  by 

BS  2 4 15  ;  R6 2  1. 89  5 
Robertson,  James,  1840-1920. 
Our  Lord's  teaching 


Our    Lord's   Teaching 


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The  Presbyterian  Churches :  Their  Place  and  Power 
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The  New  Testament  and  its  Writers,     By  Rev.  J. 
A.  M'Clymont. 

"  Our  last  word  to  intelligent  Christians,  old  and  young, 
is  to  get  it  and  assimilate  it." — The  Indepejident. 

Our  Lord's  Teaching,     By  Rev.  James  Robertson, 
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THE  GUILD  TEXT\  BOOKS'  ^    ^  ^  1923 


Our    Lord's   TeacHing 


By  the   Rev. 

James  llobertson,  D.D. 


New  York 


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AUTHOR'S   PREFACE 

This  book  is  of  a  kind  comparatively  new,  as  yet, 
in  our  country.  Familiar  as  are  our  Lord's  words 
in  the  Gospels,  it  has  not  been  customary  with  us 
to  isolate  His  teaching,  or  to  inquire  what  and 
how  much  we  may  believe  on  His  own  direct 
authority.  Nor  have  we  gone  first  to  Him  for  the 
form  in  which  to  hold  our  Christian  beliefs.  The 
theology  of  St.  Paul  so  powerfully  affected  the 
Reformers,  did  so  great  a  work  through  their 
means,  and  has  continued  so  to  mould  our  religious 
belief  that,  in  reading  the  Gospels,  it  has  been  our 
unconscious  habit  to  arrange  what  we  found  in 
them  according  to  the  system  of  doctrine  which  we 
owe  to  that  great  Apostle.  In  our  practice  the 
theology  of  the  Apostle  has  been  taken  as  primary, 
that  of  the  Master  as  secondary.  The  teaching  of 
Jesus  has  been  greatly  hidden  behind  that  of  Paul, 
and  we  have  not  been  accustomed  to  see  it  in  the 
form  and  outline  natural  to  itself.  By  many  recent 
influences  the   attention  of  the  Church  has  been 


vlii  OUR  lord's  teaching 

called  to  this,  and  there  is  now  an  increasing 
desire  to  go  "back  to  Christ,"  as  it  has  been 
expressed,  and  to  know  our  Christian  faith  first  of 
all  in  its  most  primitive,  most  authoritative,  and 
most  truly  universal  form.  The  chapters  that 
follow  are  an  endeavour  to  meet  this  desire,  so  far 
as  it  can  be  done  in  accordance  with  the  require- 
ments of  this  series  of  text-books — that  the  language 
be  plain,  that  the  treatment  be  brief,  and  that 
previous  acquaintance  with  theology  be  not  required. 
I  send  out  what  I  have  written  in  no  spirit  of 
over-confidence.  I  am,  indeed,  so  far  from  con- 
tent with  it  that  I  could  willingly  have  written  it 
again  from  the  beginning,  if  I  had  felt  assured 
that  I  could  bring  it  much  nearer  to  my  own 
ideal  of  a  book  on  our  Lord's  teaching.  I  en- 
courage myself  by  the  thought  that  much  that  I 
have  written  has  come  to  me  as  light  from  our 
Lord's  words  in  the  need  and  experience  of  life, 
and  by  the  belief  that  truth  so  received  can  hardly 
fail  to  prove  of  some  value  to  the  young  men  and 
women  for  whom  this  series  of  volumes  is  first 
intended,  as  well  as  to  other  readers. 

All  the  four  Gospels  have  been  assumed  as 
authentic  sources  of  our  Lord's  teaching.  The 
Gospel  of  St.  John  gives  that  teaching  with  so 
great  differences  that  it  is  difficult  to  combine 
what  we  read  in  it  with  what  we  find  in  the  others. 
But  their  fundamental  harmony  has  had  recently 


author's  preface  ix 

such  successful  vindication,  that  I  have  felt  that 
the  difficulty  should  not  be  insuperable,  and  that 
separate  treatment  of  the  discourses  in  St  John 
should  not  be  had  recourse  to. 

I  had  hoped  to  print  on  the  margin,  for  greater 
distinctness,  the  central  thought  of  each  successive 
paragraph.  As  this  has  been  found  impracticable, 
may  I  ask  the  attention  of  readers  to  the  summary 
of  each  chapter  at  the  beginning  of  it  ? 

The  quotations  of  Scripture  are,  throughout, 
from  the  Revised  Version. 

I  have  to  acknowledge  the  help  of  friends,  and 
especially  of  Dr.  M'Clymont,  Joint-Editor  of  the 
series,  in  revising  the  proofs. 

James  Robertson. 

Whittingehame,  May  1895. 


Him  evermore  I  behold 
Walking  in  Galilee, 
Through  the  cornfield's  waving  gold, 
In  hamlet  or  grassy  wold, 
By  the  shores  of  the  Beautiful  Sea, 
He  toucheth  the  sightless  eyes  ; 
Before  Him  the  demons  flee  ; 
To  the  dead  He  sayeth  :     Arise  I 
To  the  living  :     Follow  me  ! 
And  that  voice  still  soundeth  on 
From  the  centuries  that  are  gone, 
To  the  centuries  that  shall  be  I 

H.  W.  Longfellow. 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  rAGB 

1.  The  Manner  of  our  Lord's  Teaching      •  i 

2.  The  Method  of  His  Teaching  .         ,        •  6 

3.  The  Great  Subject  of  His  Teaching — The 

Kingdom  of  God 13 

4.  The    Basis   of    His    Teaching  —  God    the 

Father  ....•••  23 

5.  His  Teaching  about  Himself    .        •        •  31 

6.  His  Teaching  about  Man  ....  41 

7.  His  Teaching  of  Righteousness         ,         ,  52 

8.  The    Conditions    of    Entrance    into    the 

Kingdom  of  God 64 

9.  The  Blessings  of  the  Kingdom  of  God   .  75 

10.  His  Teaching  about  His  own  Death        ,  89 

11.  His  Teaching  about  the  Holy  Spirit      ,  99 

12.  His    Teaching    about    the    Church    and 

THE  Family iii 

13.  His    Teaching    about    the    End    of    the 

World 126 


OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

CHAPTER   I 

THE   MANNER  OF   HIS  TEACHING 

Jesus,  by  general  consent,  the  Great  Teacher — His  manner 
— His  countenance,  dress,  utterance,  and  attitude — 
Spiritual  features  of  His  manner:  (i)  authority,  (2) 
graciousness,  (3)  severity,  (4)  majesty — A  transcendent 
Person. 

'  I  "HE  teaching  of  Jesus  is  a  subject  which  in  these  days 
■*■  it  is  fitting  we  should  study  afresh.  In  an  age  like 
ours  when  so  many  things  are  questioned,  it  is  of  great 
advantage  if  we  can  find  something  to  start  from  about 
which  there  is  general  agreement ;  and  it  is  agreed 
among  all  men  whom  we  need  take  into  account,  that 
Jesus  is  the  greatest  religious  and  moral  Teacher  whom 
the  world  has  seen.  Many  in  our  day  who  refuse  our 
creeds,  and  put  them  aside  as  full  of  doctrinal  subtleties, 
still  declare  themselves  believers  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  and  ready  to  listen  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
Even  in  heathen  countries  like  India  there  are  found  not 
a  few  who,  without  joining  themselves  to  the  Christian 
Church,  have  come  thus  far,  that  they  venerate  Jesus  as 
the  Great  Teacher.  And  within  the  Church  itself  a 
necessity  is  widely  felt  to  go  back  to  Jesus  Himself,  and 
to  see  what  are  the  consequences  of  listening  to  Him 
afresh  and  alone,  assuming  only  that,  whatever  else  He 
was.  He  was  and  remains  the  world's  Great  Teacher  in 
religion. 

WV  may  begin  our  study  of  His  teaching  with  what 


OUR  LORDS  TEACHING 


is  most  outward  in  it.  We  may  try  to  call  up  before  us 
the  aspect  of  the  Teacher,  and  the  characteristic  manner 
in  which  He  taught. 

His  face  we  cannot  picture  to  ourselves.  No  portrait 
of  Him  survives  that  is  not  hundreds  of  years  later  than 
His  time ;  and  though  in  some  ages  He  was  spoken  of 
as  mean  in  aspect,  and  at  other  times  as,  in  all  respects, 
the  flower  of  humanity,  this  was  simply  a  reflection  from 
the  suffering  or  triumphant  state  of  the  Church  at  the 
time.  The  Gospels  tell  us  of  the  lifting  up  of  His  eyes 
as  He  prayed,  of  His  sigh  at  the  sight  of  suffering,  of  His 
deeper  sigh  in  meeting  with  moral  perversity,  and  they  tell 
of  marked  changes  in  His  countenance  ;  but  they  describe 
no  feature  of  it.  He  wore  no  distinctive  dress,  such  as 
either  the  prophets  or  the  Rabbis  wore,  but  only  the 
garments  usual  in  the  common  rank  of  life  from  which 
He  came  forth.  His  voice  and  utterance  were,  in  general, 
of  a  calm  solemnity,  without  vehemence,  and  without 
agitation.  Only  this  is  consistent  with  His  language  and 
His  attitude ;  for  He  sat  in  preaching,  whether  in  the 
synagogue,  or  on  the  mount,  or  in  the  boat  when  speak- 
ing to  the  people  on  the  shore.  But  there  were  times 
when,  being  more  deeply  moved.  He  raised  His  voice — 
"Jesus  stood  and  cried  "  (John  vii.  37).  Once  His  voice 
was  broken  with  sobs  and  weeping,  and  there  were  times 
when  the  special  feeling  or  sympathy  in  His  tones  so 
impressed  the  memory  of  those  who  heard,  that  the  very 
syllables  He  spoke  in  the  Aramaic  tongue  have  been 
preserved  (Mark  v.  41  ;  vii.  34).  That  His  look  had 
power  we  know  from  the  effect  it  had  on  men's  evil  con- 
sciences ;  as  when  it  sufficed  to  drive  before  Him  the 
traders  who  profaned  the  Temple. 

Passing  from  these  external  features,  the  great  spiritual 
characteristic  of  His  manner  in  teaching  was  authority. 
This  was  what  first  struck  His  Galilaean  hearers,  **  He 
taught  them  as  one  having  authority,  and  not  as  theii 
scribes"  (Matt.  vii.  29).  The  scribes  taught  nothing 
without  justifying  it  by  quotation  from  the  famous  Rabbis 
Jesus  appeals  to  none ;  He  seldom  even  reasons.     It 


HIS  MANNER  3 


enough  for  Him  to  announce  the  truth.  His  own  assur- 
ance of  knowing  the  truth  is  absolute.  Here  a  great 
contrast  appears  between  Him  and  Socrates,  the  one 
teacher  of  our  Western  world  with  whom  Jesus  might  be 
compared.  Socrates  did  not  profess  to  know,  but  to  be 
in  search  of  truth.  Jesus  never  speaks  as  if  in  any  doubt ; 
He  is  certain  on  every  subject  with  which  He  directly 
deals.  And  He  always  speaks  as  if  His  word  were 
enough — '*  I  say  unto  you,"  or  "Verily  I  say  unto  you,** 
or  "Again,  I  say  unto  you."  He  places  His  own  words 
on  a  level  even  with  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  of 
which  He  said  that  they  **  cannot  be  broken,"  and  that 
He  came  not  to  destroy  them,  but  to  fulfil.  In  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  He  quotes  commandments  from 
these  Scriptures,  and  then  extends,  or  even  corrects,  them 
by  His  own  authority — "Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said 
to  them  of  old  time,  Thou  shalt  not  kill  .  .  .  but  /  say 
unto  you,  that  every  one  who  is  angry  with  his  brother  .  .  . 
shall  be  in  danger."  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said  to 
them  of  old  time,  Thou  shalt  not  forswear  thyself  .  .  . 
but  /say  unto  you,  Swear  not  at  all."  **  Ye  have  heard 
that  it  was  said,  An  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth : 
but  /  say  unto  you.  Resist  not  him  that  is  evil "  (Matt. 
V.  21  ff.).  He  does  indeed  say,  "  My  teaching  is  not 
mine,  but  his  that  sent  me,"  and  "The  word  which  ye 
hear  is  not  mine,  but  the  Father's  who  sent  me  "  (John 
vii.  16  ;  xiv.  24).  But  in  this  "  high  humility  "  His  tone 
of  absolute  authority  in  the  sphere  of  religion  is  not 
lowered. 

Two  features  of  Jesus'  manner  in  His  teaching  may 
next  be  named  together,  because  they  appear  at  first  so 
opposite,  and  because  it  is  remarkable  that  they  should 
exist  together  in  so  high  a  degree,  viz.  graciousness  and 
severity.  How  gracious  are  such  words  of  His  as  these : 
"  Daughter,  be  of  good  cheer ;  thy  faith  hath  made  thee 
whole  "  (Matt.  ix.  22).  "Fear  not,  little  flock  ;  for  it  is 
your  Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom  " 
(Luke  xii.  32).  "Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled  :  ye 
believe  in  God,  believe  also  in  me.     In  my  Father'a 


OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 


house  are  many  mansions  ...  I  go  to  prepare  a  place 
for  you"  (John  xiv.  I,  2).  A  tender  graciousness  ap- 
pears continually  in  His  words  to  sufferers,  and  in  His 
acts  of  healing.  It  shows  itself  in  His  taking  up  little 
children  into  His  arms  to  bless  them,  and  in  the  per- 
sonal attraction  which  even  those  who  had  lost  character 
felt  in  Him.  "  Now  all  the  publicans  and  sinners  were 
drawing  near  unto  him  for  to  hear  him  "  (Luke  xv.  i). 

But  side  by  side  with  this  we  must  place  His  frequent 
sternness.  How  severe  were  His  reproofs  to  His  own 
disciples,  as  when  He  said  to  the  foremost  of  them : 
**  Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan  :  thou  art  a  stumblingblock 
unto  me  "  (Matt.  xvi.  23)  ;  or,  in  reference  to  another  of 
them  :  "  Did  not  I  choose  you  the  twelve,  and  one  of  you 
is  a  devil  ?  "  (John  vi.  70).  How  stern  were  His  words  to 
the  Pharisees,  especially  in  that  last  public  discourse,  of 
which  the  refrain,  often  repeated,  is:  "Woe  unto  you, 
scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites  !"  (Matt,  xxiii.).  This 
discourse  swells  with  indignant  scorn,  and  comes  nearer 
passion  than  any  other  of  His  utterances.  Nor  can  we  shut 
our  ears  to  the  exceeding  sternness  of  tone  with  which  Jesus 
speaks  of  the  final  judgment  of  God,  as  where  He  says, 
"Their  worm  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  is  not  quenched" 
(Mark.  ix.  48) ;  or  where  He  pronounces  the  words, 
"  Depart  from  me,  ye  cursed,  into  the  eternal  fire  "  (Matt. 
xxv.  41).  In  all  He  utters  there  is  an  invariable  gravity. 
Familiar  and  condescending  as  He  is,  and  deeply  com- 
passionate, no  word  ever  comes  from  His  lips  which  we 
can  describe  as  light  or  humorous. 

There  yet  remain  many  sayings  of  Jesus  whose  tone 
and  manner  seem  to  require  some  stronger  word  than  we 
have  used  as  yet — sayings  which  have  in  them  not 
authority  only,  but  majesty^  and  that  beyond  all  the 
measures  of  men.  One  of  these  is  the  invitation,  "Come 
unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I 
will  give  you  rest "  (Matt.  xi.  28).  What  majesty  of  grace 
and  power  is  in  these  words !  How  great,  too,  this  other 
saying,  "If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me,  and 
drink  "  (John  vii.  37).     And  these  proclamations  of  Him- 


HIS  MANNER 


self—"  I  am  the  bread  of  life  : "  "I  am  the  light  of  the 
world  :  "  *'  I  am  the  resurrection,  and  the  life  :  "  *'  Every 
one  that  is  of  the  truth  heareth  my  voice"  (John  vi.  35  ; 
viii.  12;  xi.  25  ;  xviii.  37).  Some  indeed  have  found 
fault  with  these  sayings  as  going  too  far  in  self-assertion, 
and  have  rejected  them  as  unworthy  of  Jesus.  But  in 
this  they  oppose  themselves  to  the  general  consent  of 
Christian  souls,  who  have  felt  in  all  ages  that  Jesus  had 
a  right  so  to  speak,  and  that  what  would  be  unfitting  in 
others  was  fitting  in  Him. 

So  now  already,  even  in  considering  the  manner  and 
tone  of  His  teaching,  does  it  not  begin  to  appear  that  we 
cannot  rest  in  the  assumption  about  Jesus  with  which  we 
began  ?  We  cannot  call  Him  the  greatest  Teacher  of 
religion  and  stop  there.  We  must  either  deny  Him  that 
title  and  withhold  it — describing  Him  rather  as  touched 
with  fanaticism  and  self-delusion — or  we  must  give  Him 
a  greater  title  still ;  for  no  man,  who  is  like  other  men, 
can  fitly  say  in  this  world  of  so  great  trouble  and  sin, 
«*  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest  "  ;  or  in  this  world  of  unsatisfied 
hearts,  "  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me,  and 
drink."  He  who  is  great  enough  to  speak  thus,  must 
surely  far  outreach  the  limitations  by  which  other  men 
are  bounded.  We  may  leave  unfixed  the  title  that 
should  be  His,  and  we  may  wait  to  learn  more  from 
what  He  taught  about  Himself;  but  very  soon  in  our 
study  of  the  words  of  Jesus  we  find  it  impossible  to 
keep,  even  if  we  would,  within  the  assumption  that  He 
was  the  greatest  of  human  Teachers — that,  and  nothing 
more. 


OUR  LORDS  TEACHING 


CHAPTER  n 

THE   METHOD   OF   HIS   TEACHING 

Importance  of  method — Jesus'  teaching  was  (i)  oral,  (2) 
occasional,  (3)  adapted  to  His  hearers,  (4)  popular, 
yet  profound  and  universal — Its  popularity  helped  by 
\a)  simplicity  of  language,  {b)  use  of  examples,  {c)  use  of 
similitudes,  {d)  proverbial  conciseness — (5)  His  teaching 
often  paradoxical — Reasons  for  this — (6)  It  was  with 
reserve,  and  unfolded  as  men  were  able  to  bear  it. 

A  GREAT  teacher  of  truth  has  usually  something 
-^~*-  notable  in  his  method.  The  method  is  so  im- 
portant, and  contributes  so  much  to  make  way  for  the 
truth,  that  we  often  perceive  a  teacher's  success  to  be 
chiefly  due  to  what  we  call  his  "way  of  putting  things." 
We  may  expect,  then,  to  find  the  method  of  Jesus  greatly 
worth  our  study.  Probably  it  will  baffle  us  to  apprehend 
it  fully,  or  to  discover  all  its  reasons  ;  but  what  we  can 
trace  of  it  will  certainly  be  instructive. 

At  the  very  outset,  we  notice  that  this  greatest  reli- 
gious Teacher  did  not  commit  His  lessons  to  writing. 
He  left  no  book.  His  teaching  from  first  to  last  was  oral. 
He  cast  it  forth  upon  the  winds  of  Galilee,  and  com- 
mitted it  to  the  memory  of  peasants.  This  need  not 
for  a  moment  suggest  a  doubt  whether  He  expected  His 
teaching  to  endure  among  men.  He  Himself  said, 
**  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  my  words  shall 
not  pass  away"  (Matt.  xxiv.  35).  This  confidence  of 
His  is  the  grander  that  He  wrote  down  nothing. 

Nor  was  the  teaching  of  Jesus  systematic  or  scientific 
in  its  method.  Any  one  will  perceive  this  at  once,  who 
will  consider  what  a  difference  there  is  between  His 


HIS  METHOD 


manner  of  teaching  and  a  confession  of  faith,  or  articles 
of  religion,  or  a  system  of  theology.  In  contrast  with 
these,  His  teaching  was  occasional.  It  took  its  shape  from 
the  opening,  and  the  need,  of  the  occasions  that  arose. 
It  had,  therefore,  an  extempore  character.  And  yet  it 
does  not,  on  this  account,  lose  universality  of  meaning. 
How  obviously  from  the  occasion  Jesus  spoke  in  His 
interview  with  the  woman  of  Samaria  ;  yet  how  universal 
is  the  reach  of  the  words,  "God  is  a  Spirit :  and  they 
that  worship  him  must  worship  in  spirit  and  truth" 
(John  iv.  24). 

And  along  with  this  occasional  character  of  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  goes  another  and  similar  feature  of  His 
method,  its  invariable  adaptation  to  His  hearers.  This 
is  the  quality  for  want  of  which,  perhaps,  preaching  most 
frequently  fails.  It  is  conspicuous  in  the  preaching  of 
Jesus.  Although  He  meant  His  teaching  to  be  universal, 
it  is  expressly  fitted  for  Jews,  and  Jews  of  that  time. 
How  expressly  for  them  is  such  a  saying  as  this  :  *'  Ex- 
cept your  righteousness  shall  exceed  the  righteousness  of 
the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  ye  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven"  (Matt.  v.  20).  He  assumes 
also  constantly  that  the  Old  Testament  is  believed  and 
known ;  and  the  errors,  formalisms,  and  hypocrisies  which 
He  assails  are  those  of  the  time  and  country.  The 
teaching  of  Jesus,  surviving  as  it  does  in  such  power 
to  our  day,  is  a  proof  that  the  teaching  which  is  most 
true  to  the  occasion  and  to  the  audience  of  one  age,  may 
be  the  most  abiding  in  its  instructiveness  to  the  ages  that 
come  after. 

This  double  character — of  adaptation  to  the  audiences 
who  heard  Him  and  permanent  significance — is  partly 
accounted  for  by  this  next  feature  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
its  popular  character.  We  do  not  so  speak  of  it  in  any 
vulgar  sense.  It  was  as  far  as  possible  from  being  suited 
to  flatter  the  people,  or  to  tickle  their  ears  by  oratorical 
device.  But  it  was  fitted  in  the  highest  degree  for 
popular  apprehension,  and  "the  common  people  heard 
Him  gladly '  (Mark  xii.  37).    It  had  this  fitness  because 


8  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

He,  more  constantly  than  any  other  great  teacher, 
directed  his  appeals  to  the  instinct  for  truth  and  right 
that  is  common  to  man,  and  in  respect  of  which  rich 
and  poor,  learned  and  unlearned,  are  on  the  same 
level.  He  challenged  the  witness  which  the  best  in  man 
bears  to  the  truth  of  God.  In  harmony  with  this  we  find 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  simple  in  language,  profound  in 
meaning.  "It  joins  in  the  highest  degree  possible," 
says  Wendt,  "popular  intelligibility  and  rich  signifi- 
cance." So  it  has  a  wonderful  breadth  of  adaptation  at 
once  to  great  minds  and  to  the  simple  in  understanding. 
It  is  at  once  popular  and  universal. 

Its  popular  intelligibility  is  greatly  helped  also  by 
simplicity  of  language,  and  by  the  constant  use  of  apt 
example  and  felicitous  comparison.  Every  one  will  re- 
collect how  Jesus  carried  home  His  teaching,  so  that  it 
could  not  be  misunderstood  or  forgotten,by  examples  taken 
from  life,  such  as  the  low  expressions  used  in  reproach 
(*'  Raca,"  "  Thou  fool,"),  the  case  of  bringing  the  gift  to 
the  altar,  and  the  incident  of  the  widow  who  gave  the  two 
mites.  Often  a  lesson  of  Jesus,  stated  shortly,  in  the 
form  of  an  example,  has  wonderful  clearness  and  reach. 
*'  Whosoever  shall  give  to  drink  a  cup  of  cold  water 
only,  in  the  name  of  a  disciple,  he  shall  in  no  wise  lose 
his  reward  "  (Matt.  x.  42).  The  abundance  also  of  His 
use  of  comparisons  may  be  observed  in  every  page  of 
the  Gospels.  The  parables,  unique  perhaps  in  literature, 
come  first  to  our  mind  as  instances.  But  shorter  com- 
parisons, with  figurative  and  allegorical  touches,  are  con- 
tinually giving  vividness  to  what  He  says,  and  making 
it  memorable  to  every  mind.  So  the  familiar  objects  and 
common  human  labours  of  the  time  and  country  appear 
in  the  Gospels,  serving  spiritual  uses — the  fowls  of  the 
air,  the  lilies  of  the  field,  the  shepherd  and  the  sheep, 
the  bondman  ploughing  or  feeding  cattle,  the  lamp  on 
the  stand,  the  hen  with  the  chickens  under  her  wings. 
As  we  read  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  we  find  it  alive  with 
example,  figure,  and  similitude,  and  the  similitude  so  fits, 
and  is  so  subordinate  to  what  is  taught,  that  attention  is 


HIS  METHOD 


never  drawn  to  it  but  to  the  truth.  The  "rich  signifi- 
cance," named  above,  is  given  not  only  by  the  weight 
of  the  truth  conveyed,  but  by  the  rare  conciseness  of  ex- 
pression, often  in  proverbial  and  antithetic  form.  **  The 
sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  sabbath" 
(Mark  ii.  27).  "With  what  measure  ye  mete  it  shall  be 
measured  unto  you  "  (Mark  iv.  24).  ' '  He  that  is  not  with 
me  is  against  me  ;  and  he  that  gathereth  not  with  me 
scattereth"  (Matt.  xii.  30).  "Every  one  that  exalteth 
himself  shall  be  humbled  ;  but  he  that  humbleth  himself 
shall  be  exalted"  (Luke  xviii.  14).  All  these  features 
of  the  teaching  combine  to  make  it  at  once  popular, 
memorable,  and  fruitful  of  instruction. 

Another  feature  in  the  method  of  Jesus  is,  that  He 
often  puts  the  truth  in  a  form  intentionally  surprising^  or 
paradoxical,  or  apparently  impracticable.  How  surpris- 
ing, for  example,  the  opening  of  the  great  sermon  in  St. 
Luke — "  Blessed  are  ye  poor  :  for  yours  is  the  kingdom 
of  God."  "  Woe  unto  you  that  are  rich  !  for  ye  have 
received  your  consolation  "  (vi.  20,  24).  These  were 
especially  surprising  words  to  Jewish  hearers,  who  thought 
riches  a  sign  of  the  favour  of  heaven.  How  paradoxical 
again,  such  sayings  as  these — "  I  came  not  to  call  the 
righteous,  but  sinners"  (Mark  ii.  17).  "Whosoever 
would  save  his  life  shall  lose  it :  and  whosoever  shall  lose 
his  life  for  my  sake  shall  find  it"  (Matt.  xvi.  25). 
"  If  any  man  cometh  unto  me,  and  hateth  not  his  own 
father,  and  mother,  and  wife,  and  children,  and  brethren, 
and  sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  life  also,  he  cannot  be 
my  disciple"  (Luke  xiv.  26).  How  impracticable, 
again,  seems  this  rule — "  Whosoever  shall  compel  thee 
to  go  one  mile,  go  with  him  twdin  "  (Matt.  v.  41). 

Now  it  must  be  remembered,  in  order  to  appreciate 
this  feature  of  the  method  of  Jesus,  that  a  great  difficulty 
in  the  way  of  a  teacher  of  new  truth  is,  that  the  people 
he  deals  with  may  already  think  they  know,  while  they 
do  not.  The  Jews  of  that  time  thought  they  knew 
about  the  kingdom  of  God,  but  were  greatly  mistaken  ; 
they  thought  that  temporal  prosperity  was  the  foremost 


lo  OUR  LORDS  TEACHING 

thing  in  it,  and  that  they  themselves  had  a  sure  right 
to  that  kingdom  as  children  of  Abraham.  The  great 
difficulty  with  such  hearers  was  in  what  they  had  to 
unlearn.  They  must  learn  and  unlearn  at  the  same 
time.  Now  the  often  startling  and  paradoxical  form 
of  the  sayings  of  Jesus  was  happily  fitted  for  this. 
Their  old  beliefs  received  a  shock  ;  they  could  not  sup- 
pose that  they  knew  already  what  He  had  to  tell  ;  their 
minds  were  stirred  to  think  afresh ;  they  were  set  a 
problem  which  it  would  do  them  good  to  think  of. 

And,  indeed,  according  to  the  character  and  aims 
of  Jesus'  kingdom,  a  supreme  need  of  all  men — not  of 
Jews  only — is  the  stirring  and  cultivating  of  moral 
thoughtfulness  in  themselves. 

The  aim  of  Jesus,  in  teaching  about  duty,  is  not  so 
much  to  secure  that  good  deeds  be  done,  as  to  make 
good  men — to  cultivate  in  men  a  spirit  like  His  own. 
Now  for  this  it  is  necessary  that  men  have  their  con- 
sciences exercised  to  know  good  and  evil.  It  is  profitable 
for  them  to  have  the  discipline  of  seeking  the  truth  and 
coming  to  know  it  better  the  more  earnestly  they  seek  it. 
So  their  interest  in  truth  is  tested,  and  their  love  of  it 
grows  as  they  advance  in  knowing  it.  The  search  for 
truth  brings  blessing  to  the  character  as  well  as  the 
actual  knowledge  of  it.  Accordingly,  many  of  our  Lord's 
teachings  are  so  expressed  j^s  to  be  in  a  high  degree  stimu- 
lants of  thought,  and  their  purpose  is  quite  as  much  to 
stimulate  as  to  reveal.  They  are  surprising,  paradoxical, 
enigmatical,  and  arouse  the  mind  by  the  difficulty  of 
receiving  them  as  true.  The  mind  is  kept  by  them  in  the 
attitude  of  inquiry  and  progress.  We  read,  for  example, 
in  the  parable  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus  :  **  Thou  in 
thy  lifetime  receivedst  thy  good  things,  and  Lazarus  in  like 
manner  evil  things  :  but  now  here  he  is  comforted,  and 
thou  art  in  anguish"  (Luke  xvi.  25).  This  has  the  strange 
appearance  of  teaching  that  the  rule  of  God's  judgment 
after  death  is  simply  to  reverse  the  condition  in  the  earthly 
life,  and  that  the  rich  and  poor  will  then  exchange  places. 
So  some  allege  that  Jesus  does  here  teach.      But  surely 


HIS  METHOD  ii 


it  is  foolish  to  think  so.  The  purpose  of  Jesus  rather  is 
to  stir  moral  though tfulness  about  the  great  and  unex- 
pected changes  another  life  will  certainly  bring.  These 
sayings  again  :  **  Whosoever  smiteth  thee  on  thy  right 
cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also";  "Whosoever  shall 
compel  thee  to  go  one  mile,  go  with  him  twain " ; 
**  Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee,  and  from  him  that  would 
borrow  of  thee  turn  not  thou  away"  (Matt,  v.  39,  41, 
42),  how  powerful  they  have  been,  not  in  their  literal 
fulfilment,  for  an  actual  turning  of  the  other  cheek  might 
be  done  by  a  self-complacent  legalist,  but  in  stirring 
Christian  hearts  to  think  how  to  put  away  revenge,  to 
forbear  the  assertion  of  rights,  and  to  live  in  love  with 
those  that  are  evil.  They  serve  their  purpose  by  con- 
tinually setting  us  a  moral  problem  to  solve.  They  are 
intended  *'  to  arouse  the  conscience,  by  baffling  the  under- 
standing." They  indicate  principles  of  conduct  all  the 
more  plainly  that  they  are  impracticable  or  futile  as  rules. 
One  other  feature  of  the  method  of  Jesus  was  that  His 
teaching  was  with  reserve ^  and  unfolded  as  men  were 
able  to  bear  it.  "  I  have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto 
you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now  "  (John  xvi.  12).  He 
kept  back  truths  till  the  hearers  might  be  more  ready  to 
receive  them.  A  signal  instance  of  this  is  the  way  in 
which  he  kept  in  the  background  His  claim  to  be  the 
Messiah,  and  delayed  announcement  of  it.  He  spoke  of 
Himself  usually  as  '*  The  Son  of  Man,"  a  title  not  current 
among  the  people  for  the  Messiah.  He  delayed  announc- 
ing Himself,  because  the  expectation  they  had  in  regard 
to  the  Messiah  was  so  carnal  and  earthly — that,  namely, 
of  a  conquering  king,  who  would  give  the  Jews  a  supreme 
place  among  the  nations.  It  is  obvious  that  if  Jesus 
had  early  given  Himself  out  plainly  as  the  Messiah,  He 
would  have  been  utterly  misunderstood.  He  would 
have  meant  one  thing  by  that  name  ;  His  hearers 
would  have  imderstood  quite  another  thing.  So  He 
chose  to  labour  among  them,  as  it  were,  incognito  for 
a  time.  It  seems  to  have  been  His  purpose  that  they 
should  first  have  opportunity,  in  this  way,  to  know  Him 


12  OUR  LORDS  TEACHING 

as  He  was  in  Himself,  if  so  be  that  the  reality  of  His 
character,  and  the  spirit  of  His  teaching  might  in  time  be 
felt  by  them  to  surpass  what  they  expected  in  their 
Messiah — might  displace  their  crude  earthly  expectations 
— and  they  might  come  to  feel  Him  more  worthy  of  the 
title.  The  Christy  than  the  earthly  king  they  looked  for. 

There  is  an  apparent  exception  to  this  reserve  of 
His,  which  may  be  said  to  prove  the  rule.  Early  in 
His  ministry  at  the  well  of  Jacob,  He  said  to  the 
woman  of  Samaria,  when  she  spoke  of  Messiah  coming  : 
*•  I  that  'speak  unto  thee  am  he  "  (John  iv.  26).  This 
is  a  startling  and  solitary  plainness  on  the  part  of  Jesus. 
It  stands  alone  at  that  period.  But  it  will  be  seen  from 
the  woman's  words,  "  He  will  declare  unto  us  all  things," 
that  her  expectation  was  less  of  a  king  than  of  a  prophet. 
Among  the  people  of  Samaria  there  was  less  to  overcome 
of  false  expectation  and  earthly  hope.  Jesus  could  say 
among  them  what  He  could  not  say  among  the  Jews ; 
and  this  plain  announcement  at  the  well  of  Jacob,  '*  I 
that  speak  unto  thee  am  he,"  only  brings  more  into  view, 
by  contrast,  the  long  reserve  of  Jesus  in  His  teaching 
among  the  Jews. 

The  subject  of  this  chapter — the  method  of  Jesus — is 
seldom  thought  of  by  ordinary  readers.  Nor  are  they  to 
blame  for  this.  The  very  perfection  of  His  method  leads 
to  its  being  unobserved.  The  result  of  this  perfection  is 
that  the  whole  impression  the  mind  receives  is  of  the 
greatness  and  preciousness  of  the  truths  conveyed.  But 
by  study  of  His  method  we  can  trace  it  out  in  part ;  we 
can  obtain  some  glimpses  into  the  wisdom  of  its  adapta- 
tion to  His  great  purposes,  and  sometimes  our  interpre- 
tation of  His  words  will  be  the  more  just  and  the  more 
sure  that  we  have  become  aware  of  such  features  of  His 
method  as  those  which  we  have  here  reviewed. 


HIS  GREAT  SUBJECT  13 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   GREAT   SUBJECT   OF   HIS   TEACHING 

His  great  subject,  the  kingdom  of  God — Shown  to  be  so  by 
a  review  of  His  teaching — The  subject  was  suited  to 
His  hearers — It  was  in  the  line  of  God's  preparation 
in  history — His  teaching  was  nevertheless  new  and 
original — Three  distinguishing  features  of  it :  (i)  The 
kingdom  is  one  of  spiritual,  not  material  good  things  ; 
(2)  It  is  to  be  brought  in,  not  by  earthly  power,  but 
by  divine  grace  ;  (3)  It  is  already  present,  but  is  to 
come  in  future  glorious  perfection — Attempts  to  define 
the  kingdom  of  God — Who  is  its  King? — Objection 
to  the  title  "  Kingdom  of  God,"  and  answer. 

SINCE  it  is  so  widely  agreed  that  Jesus  is  our  greatest 
Teacher,  we  come  with  interest  to  the  question, 
What  was  the  great  subject  of  His  teaching  ?  Probably 
many  readers  of  the  Gospels  would  say,  if  they  must  give 
an  answer  at  once,  that  the  great  subject  of  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  was — how  a  soul  can  be  saved.  That  is  what 
they  look  into  the  Gospels  in  search  of,  and  they  would 
think  it  safe  to  say  that  the  great  subject  of  Jesus' 
preaching  must  have  been  a  sinner's  salvation. 

Certainly  Jesus  did  not  forget  that  or  leave  it  out, 
but  His  great  subject  we  find,  in  reality,  to  have 
been — the  kingdom  of  God.  The  three  first  Gospels 
ring  all  through  with  news  of  the  kingdom,  and  it  is  also 
named  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  John.  His  preaching  began 
with  it — "  From  that  time  began  Jesus  to  preach,  and 
to  say.  Repent  ye ;  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
at  hand.    .    .    .  And  Jesus  went  about  in  all  Galilee, 


OUR  LORDS  TEACHING 


teaching  in  their  synagogues,  and  preaching  the  gospel  of 
the  kingdom"  (Matt.  iv.  17,  23). 

In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  which  was  the  first 
great  utterance  of  His  mind  and  message,  the  kingdom 
of  God — or  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  which  is  the  same 
thing — is  spoken  of  all  through.  The  sermon  begins : 
"Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit:  for  theirs  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."  A  large  portion  of  the  sermon 
has  for  its  text,  '  *  Except  your  righteousness  shall  exceed 
the  righteousness  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  ye  shall  in 
no  wise  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  Again  we 
read  in  it,  "  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his 
righteousness  ";  and  "  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me 
Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
In  fact,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  the  corresponding 
one  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke,  might  be  summed  up 
under  two  heads  —  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  the 
Righteousness  of  the  Kingdom. 

When  Jesus,  at  a  later  stage  of  His  ministry,  began  His 
remarkable  method  of  teaching  by  parables.  He  opened 
parable  after  parable  with  the  words,  **  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  like,"  or  "Whereunto  shall  I  liken  the  king- 
dom of  God?"  (Matt.  xiii.). 

When  He  sent  forth  His  twelve  apostles,  the  com- 
mission He  gave  them  was  this,  "As  ye  go,  preach, 
saying,  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand"  (Matt.  x. 
7).  When  He  sent  forth  the  seventy  others.  He  bade 
them  say,  *'  The  kingdom  of  God  is  come  nigh  unto 
you,"  and  if  in  any  city  the  people  would  not  receive  them, 
they  were  to  wipe  off  the  dust  from  their  feet  and  say, 
*•  Howbeit  know  this,  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  come 
nigh"  (Luke  x.  9,  11). 

Many  other  sayings  of  Jesus  will  occur  to  readers  in 
confirmation  of  what  has  been  said,  as,  for  example, 
these  that  follow  : — "  If  I  by  the  Spirit  of  God  cast  out 
devils,  then  is  the  kingdom  of  God  come  upon  you" 
(Matt.  xii.  28).  *'  Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  vmto 
me ;  forbid  them  not :  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of 
God"  (Mark,  x.  14).     "Verily  I  say  unto  you.  Except 


HIS  GREA  T  SUBJECT  15 


ye  turn,  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  in  no  wise 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven"  (Matt,  xviii.  3). 
"  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  the  publicans  and  the  harlots 
go  into  the  kingdom  of  God  before  you  "  (Matt.  xxi.  3 1 ). 
"Thou  art  not  far  from  the  kingdom  of  God" 
(Mark  xii.  34).  And  the  eminence  of  the  subject  shows 
itself  very  plainly  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  in  which,  after 
words  which  may  all  be  described  as  of  adoration,  the 
first  great  petition  put  into  our  mouths  is  this,  "  Thy 
kingdom  come." 

Now  let  us  observe,  in  regard  to  this  great  subject  of 
Jesus,  that  it  was  one  very  suitable  for  His  hearers.  It 
would  catch  their  ears  at  once,  because  it  was  the  very 
thing  they  were  already  thinking  about  and  most  in- 
terested in. 

"There  is  a  good  time  coming."  Often  have  people 
cheered  themselves  with  this  hope.  Sometimes  the 
whole  population  of  a  country  gets  filled  with  hope  of 
"  a  good  time  coming,"  and  is  persuaded  that  it  is  at 
hand.  History  tells  us  what  hope  of  a  good  time 
coming  was  in  men's  minds  at  the  time  of  the  French 
Revolution  in  the  last  century.  An  old  world  was 
passing  away,  and  a  new  world  coming  in  its  place.  The 
watchwords  of  the  new  time  were.  Liberty,  Equality, 
and  Fraternity.  The  Rights  of  Man  were  eagerly  dis- 
cussed. Not  merely  people  in  France,  but  many  in 
other  countries,  and  some  of  our  greatest  poets  (as  Words- 
worth, Coleridge,  and  Southey),  were  full  of  eager  hope 
in  the  belief  that  a  time  of  great  blessing  was  near, 
especially  for  the  large  body  of  the  people  who  had 
suffered  unde^  disadvantage  and  contempt ;  that  a  time 
was  at  hand  when  extreme  poverty  would  be  brought  to 
an  end,  suffering  immensely  diminished,  and  all  human 
life  irradiated  by  love  and  honour. 

There  is  nothing  perhaps  in  modem  life  so  fitted  as 
this  hope  to  give  an  idea  of  the  state  of  mind  of  the 
Jewish  people,  when  Jesus  began  to  teach  and  preach 
among  them.  They  were  expecting  "the  good  time 
coming,"  but  their  name  for  it  was  "the  kingdom  of 


i6  OUR  LORD  S  TEACHING 

God."  Their  ideas  of  what  the  good  time  would  bring 
were  different  from  those  of  our  modem  world,  but  also 
with  strong  resemblances ;  and  the  hope  of  it,  deep  in 
their  hearts,  had  been  fanned  into  a  flame  just  before 
Jesus  began  to  teach,  by  the  startling  appearance  and  fiery 
preaching  of  John  the  Baptist,  who  announced  to  the 
multitudes  who  came  to  him,  **The  kingdom  of  heaven 
is  at  hand."  The  great  subject,  then,  of  the  preaching 
of  Jesus  was  signally  fitted  to  catch  the  attention  and 
enchain  the  interest  of  His  hearers.  It  was  directly  in 
line  with  their  most  earnest  expectations. 

Another  thing  we  may  observe  about  this  subject — it 
was  in  line  with  the  previous  history  of  the  Jews  and 
God's  guidance  of  that  history.  The  subject  Jesus  spoke 
about  was,  in  fact,  that  for  which  a  divine  preparation 
had  been  going  on  for  ages.  For,  from  whence  did  the 
Jews  get  that  strong  expectation  of  a  good  and  glorious 
time?  They  got  it  from  the  prophets  whom  God  had 
sent,  who  had  helped  to  guide  their  history,  and  who 
had  expounded  to  them  its  divine  meaning.  The  old 
history,  upon  which  they  looked  back  with  pride,  had 
itself  been  a  **  theocracy  " — that  is,  a  "  kingdom  of  God." 
Their  kings,  from  David  downwards,  had  been  vice- 
gerents of  God,  who  was  their  real  King.  Such,  at  least, 
was  the  right  understanding  of  their  position  and  duty, 
and  the  glory  of  the  history  of  the  people  was  just  in  so 
far  as  they  realised  this  ideal.  And  they  had  learned 
from  their  prophets  to  think  of  this,  not  as  merely  past, 
but  as  again  to  return — to  return  in  a  far  more  glorious 
form  than  it  had  ever  attained  in  the  past,  in  a  form  in 
which  the  real  and  the  ideal  would  be  one.  The  king 
would  be  another  David  (Ezek.  xxxvii.  24),  or  Son  of 
David,  with  a  divine  favour  on  Himself,  and  a  divine  bless- 
ing and  prosperity  on  His  people,  in  describing  which  the 
prophets  use  the  noblest  language,  perhaps,  in  human 
literature.  Where  in  literature  do  we  find  language  so 
inspiring  as  in  the  seventy-second  Psalm,  in  portions  of  the 
ninth,  sixtieth,  and  sixty-sixth  chapters  of  Isaiah,  of  the 
thirty-first  chapter  of  Jeremiah,  of  the  fifth  of  Micah,  and 


HIS  GREAT  SUBJECT  17 

of  the  last  of  Amos?  We  see,  then,  that  Jesus,  in 
choosing  for  His  great  subject  the  kingdom  of  God  was 
placing  His  teaching  in  line,  not  only  with  the  ex- 
pectations of  His  hearers,  but  with  the  whole  course  of 
history  and  prophecy  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament. 
In  other  words,  He  was  making  use  of,  and  turning  to 
account,  the  long  preparation  which  God,  as  we  believe, 
had  made  for  that  kingdom  and  for  His  coming.  He 
was  entering  into  His  own. 

But  though  the  subject  which  Jesus  chose  was  in  the 
Vine  of  this  long  preparation,  and  was  familiar  in  name 
and  title  to  the  Jews  of  His  time.  His  teaching  was 
not  at  all  identical  with  the  common  expectation  of  the 
Jews.  It  was  in  a  startling  manner  fresh  and  original, 
and  the  kingdom  of  God  which  He  spoke  of  differed 
greatly  from  what  they  looked  for.  It  had,  we  may 
say,  three  principal  distinguishing  features. 

I.  Their  hope  was  of  material  good  things.  No  doubt 
the  more  pious  Jews,  like  Zacharias  (Luke  i.  77),  looked 
for  a  kingdom  of  righteousness  and  salvation,  such  as  a 
true  understanding  of  the  prophets  would  have  pointed 
to.  But,  in  the  general  mind  of  the  people,  marvellous 
plenty,  abundance  of  the  good  things  of  this  life,  venge- 
ance on  enemies,  and  political  glory  were  the  chief  features 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  which  they  were  waiting  for.  The 
kingdom  of  God  which  Jesus  preached  was  one,  first  of 
all,  of  spiritual  good  things,  not  meat  and  drink,  but 
righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  In 
this  respect  the  kingdom  of  God  differs  also  from  the 
various  forms  of  socialistic  aim  and  hope  which  are  in- 
fluencing large  numbers  in  our  day.  The  opening  words 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  touch  this  critical  difference 
between  Jesus  and  the  Jews  of  His  time,  and  also  between 
His  Gospel  and  the  wave  of  Socialist  hope  in  the  present 
day.  Jew  and  Socialist  alike  assume  that  the  key  to 
blessedness  is  in  the  possession  of  plenty,  and  in  circum- 
stances that  are  advantageous.  The  average  Socialist 
believes  that  with  general  plenty  there  would  come  general 
happiness,  and  an  end  of  most  moral  evils.  With  Jesus,  an 


i8  OUR  lord's  teaching 

the  contrary,  **A  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the 
abundance  of  the  things  which  he  possesseth "  (Luke 
xii.  15).  Blessedness  lies  not  in  what  men  have^  but 
in  what  they  are.  It  begins  in  character.  And  so, 
when  "He  opened  his  mouth"  (Matt.  v.  2),  He  said, 
*♦  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit :  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  Blessed  are  the  meek.  .  .  ,  Blessed  are  they 
that  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness.  .  .  .  Blessed 
are  the  pure  in  heart.  .  .  .  Blessed  are  the  peacemakers : 
for  they  shall  be  called  sons  of  God."  This  is  the  goal 
which  Jesus  has  in  view,  a  kingdom  of  God  in  which 
men  are  like  God  in  character,  are  His  true  children, 
and  share  His  own  blessedness. 

2.  Another  great  distinction  in  Jesus'  teaching  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  in  regard  to  the  means  by  which  it 
is  to  be  brought  in.  The  Socialist  believes  that  the 
good  time  he  looks  for  can  be  brought  in  by  changes 
in  law,  government,  and  social  arrangements.  He 
would  put  an  end,  for  example,  to  individual  rights 
of  property.  Property — or  capital,  at  least — would  be 
held  only  in  common ;  then  all  men  would  be  labouring 
only  for  the  common  good,  and  by  this  one  change  we 
should  have  a  practically  new  world.  Besides  this  de- 
finite plan  and  scheme  of  Socialists,  it  has  been  the  wont 
of  many  poets  and  philosophers,  who  have  hoped  for  a 
golden  age  of  the  world,  to  assume  that  it  will  come  by 
the  natural,  progressive  powers  of  the  human  race.  They 
have  assumed  that  there  is  a  law  of  progress  in  human 
history,  working  itself  out  naturally,  and  that  in  this  way 
the  long  -  hoped  -  for  day  of  blessing  will  come.  But 
Jesus  said,  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world  "  (John 
xviii.  36) ;  it  does  not  draw  its  resources  from  this  world. 
The  kingdom  which  Jesus  preached  is  something  too 
high  and  too  blessed  to  be  set  up  by  the  ordinary  means 
that  men  can  use,  or  to  come  in  the  ordinary  course  of 
human  progress.  "  The  world  will  never  evolve  a  golden 
age,  or  ideal  state."  As  in  the  Book  of  Revelation  the 
New  Jerusalem,  the  Holy  City,  is  seen  coming  down 
from  God  out  of  heaven,  so  it  is  with  the  kingdom  of 


HIS  GREA  T  SUBJECT  19 

God  which  Jesus  preached.  It  is  something  new,  coming 
down  from  above  ;  it  is  built  up  by  supernatural  power 
on  a  supernatural  foundation.  Therefore  we  speak  of  it 
as  a  kingdom  of  grace.  This  word  is  not  used  by  Jesus 
Himself  in  speaking  of  it,  but  it  is  a  true  word  in 
describing  the  kingdom  of  God  which  He  announced ; 
for  that  kingdom,  as  He  expounded  it,  is  a  sphere  in 
which  not  nature  only  is  at  work,  but  grace — a  redeem- 
ing power  from  God  which  came  by  Jesus  Himself. 

3.  A  third  distinction  and  mark  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  preached  by  Jesus  is  that  it  is  already  present. 
Sometimes,  indeed,  He  speaks  of  it  as  far  off  and  to 
come  in  a  latter  day.  "Ye  shall  see  Abraham,  and 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  all  the  prophets,  in  the  kingdom  of 
God  "  (Luke  xiii.  28).  ♦*  I  will  not  drink  from  hence- 
forth of  the  fruit  of  the  vine,  until  the  kingdom  of  God 
shall  come"  (Luke  xxii.  18),  But  when  He  was  asked 
by  the  Pharisees  when  the  kingdom  of  God  cometh,  He 
answered,  "The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with 
observation  ...  for  lo  !  the  kingdom  of  God  is  in 
the  midst  of  you  "  (Luke  xvii.  20,  21,  margin).  The  truth 
is  that,  as  the  kingdom  depends  on  character — on  the 
character  of  true  children  of  God — it  had  already  begun 
when  Jesus  Himself  was  in  the  world,  living  as  a 
Son  with  the  Father.  It  grew  as  disciples  gathered 
round  Him,  believed  in  Him,  and  learned  of  Him.  It 
made  a  great  advance  when  the  Spirit  was  fully  given 
— that  Spirit  by  which  men  are  inwardly  changed,  bom 
into  the  kingdom  (John  iii.  3),  and  guided  into  all  the 
truth  (John  xvi.  13).  The  kingdom  is  a  kingdom  of 
the  truth  (John  xviii.  37),  of  which  the  "  Word  of  God" 
is  the  seed  (Luke  viii.  11),  and  so  it  advances  by  dis- 
pensations and  crises  as  men  are  able  to  receive  the 
truth.  Even  the  Old  Testament  dispensation  was,  in  a 
sense,  a  first  stage  of  it,  and  the  Jews  are  spoken  of  as 
**the  children  of  the  kingdom"  (Matt.  viii.  12).  It 
reached  a  new  stage  when  Jesus  was  teaching  in  the 
flesh.  "  From  the  days  of  John  the  Baptist  until  now 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  suflereth  violence,  and  men  of 


20  OUR  LORDS  TEACHING 

violence  take  it  by  force"  (Matt.  xi.  12).  Still  another 
stage  of  the  kingdom  was  reached  when  the  Holy  Ghost 
began  to  be  given  after  Jesus  ascended.  So  was  given 
the  divine  power  by  which  the  kingdom  grows  and  con- 
quers. Another  stage  yet — the  last  which  Jesus  tells  of — 
will  be  **  When  the  Son  of  man  shall  come  in  His  glory." 
Then  the  kingdom,  as  well  as  the  King,  will  be  revealed 
in  glory.  Outwardly  and  inwardly  it  will  be  glorious. 
"  Then  shall  the  righteous  shine  forth  as  the  sun  in  the 
kingdom  of  their  Father"  (Matt.  xiii.  43). 

We  may  now  attempt  to  give  a  definition  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Jesus  gives  no  definition  of  it  Himself, 
and  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  make  one  on  account  of  the  mani- 
fold meaning  He  gives  the  expression.  Sometimes  He 
speaks  of  the  kingdom  as  consisting  oi persons,  as  in  the 
words,  "Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me  ...  for 
of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  God  "  (Mark  x.  14).  Often  He 
speaks  of  it  as  a  thing — the  supreme  good  [summum 
bonum)  of  human  life  ;  as  in  the  words,  **  Seek  ye  first  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  his  righteousness  "  (Matt.  vi.  33). 
**  Fear  not,  little  flock ;  for  it  is  your  Father's  good 
pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom "  (Luke  xii.  32). 
Often  again  He  speaks  of  it  as  a  sphere  or  realm  which 
men  may  be  outside  of,  or  may  be  within ;  as  in  these 
other  words,  "  How  hardly  shall  they  that  have  riches 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God  "  (Mark  x.  23).  Yet,  in 
spite  of  difficulty,  it  seems  necessary  that  we  should  try  to 
answer  the  plain  question.  What  is  the  kingdom  of  God 
spoken  of  in  the  Gospels  ?  We  may  say,  then,  that  it  is 
(a)  the  name  Jesus  used  for  a  good  time  coming  among 
men — a  golden  age — which  He  came  in  the  flesh  to 
begin,  comes  in  the  Spirit  to  advance,  and  will  come 
again  in  glory  to  perfect.  Or  [b)  it  is  a  sphere  of  life, 
higher  than  our  natural  sphere,  into  which  men  can  be 
born  anew  (John  iii.  3),  and  in  which  the  Spirit  works, 
imparting  the  life  which  is  eternal.  Or  {c)  it  is  a  new 
society  or  commonwealth,  which  Jesus  came  to  form,  of 
men  redeemed  from  sin,  and  in  fellowship  with  God  as  His 
SODS,  in  which  He  is  to  them,  and  they  are  to  Him  and 


HIS  GREAT  SUBJECT  81 

to  one  another,  all  that  they  are  capable  of  being.  So 
the  old  promise  is  gloriously  fulfilled,  **  I  will  be  to  them 
a  God,  and  they  shall  be  to  me  a  people." 

Who,  it  may  be  asked,  is  the  king  of  this  kingdom  ? 
Jesus  is  its  King,  for  He  says,  "  The  Son  of  man  shall  .  .  . 
gather  out  oihis  kingdom  all  things  that  cause  stumbling  " 
(Matt.  xiii.  41).  But  the  Father  is  also  its  King;  for 
Jesus  teaches  us  to  pray,  "  Our  Father  which  art  in 
heaven.  .  .  .  Thy  kingdom  come  "  (Matt.  vi.  9,  10). 
Jesus  founds  and  administers  the  kingdom  for  His  Father, 
and  St.  Paul  tells  us  that  the  end  cometh,  *'  when  he 
shall  deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  God,  even  the  Father 
.  .  .   that  God  may  be  all  in  all "  (i  Cor.  xv.  24,  28). 

In  reflecting  now  upon  this  great  subject  of  Jesus' 
preaching,  we  see  it  to  be  wonderfully  high,  noble,  and 
inspiring.  It  is  so,  because  it  is  so  grandly  hopeful  for 
the  future  of  men.  It  brings  into  view  a  "regeneration" 
(Matt.  xix.  28),  or  new-making  of  men,  of  society,  and 
indeed  of  all  things.  Jesus  sees,  as  none  ever  saw,  the 
strength  of  the  evils  by  which  men  are  beset ;  yet  still 
He  preaches  a  kingdom  with  powers  of  divine  grace  at 
work  in  it  so  great  that  it  shall  prevail  over  sin,  sorrow, 
and  death  in  a  glorious  manner.  His  great  subject  is, 
as  we  said,  not  a  soul's  salvation,  but  that  of  a  kingdom 
of  souls.  It  is  more  than  a  man's  own  good,  which,  by 
itself,  is  not  his  highest  blessing.  It  is  a  world-wide 
communion  in  good;  it  is  "Joy  in  widest  commonalty 
spread."  "They  shall  come  from  the  east  and  west, 
and  from  the  north  and  south,  and  shall  sit  down  in 
the  kingdom  of  God  "  (Luke  xiii.  29). 

It  has  been  objected  to  the  title  of  this  great  topic  of 
Jesus  that,  though  it  was  most  suitable  and  attractive  to 
His  own  time  and  nation,  it  is  not  so  now.  People 
nowadays  are  not,  as  the  Jews  were,  expecting  and  talking 
about  "the  kingdom  of  God."  We  do  not  find  "the 
kingdom  of  God  "  a  prominent  topic  in  the  newspapers, 
and  it  is  in  them  that  we  see  reflected  the  strong  interests 
of  the  people.  It  has  even  been  suggested  that  a  title 
like  this,  in  which  the  word   '*  kingdom  "  occurs,  does 


22  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

not  suit  a  democratic  age  like  ours.  The  people  of  such 
an  age  are  repelled,  it  is  said,  not  attracted,  by  the  word 
•'kingdom."  It  conveys  to  them  an  oppressive  sense  of 
authority  and  obedience,  instead  of  liberty  and  joy. 
Should  we,  then,  in  preaching  the  Gospel,  use  this  title 
*'  the  kingdom  of  God  "  but  little  ?  Should  we  gradually 
drop  it  as  not  quite  fit  for  our  time  ?  Would  Jesus 
Himself,  had  His  preaching  been  in  our  time,  have  used 
"commonwealth"  for  "kingdom"  (see  Ephes.  ii.  12)? 
Or  would  He  have  so  adapted  His  teaching  to  hearers  in 
this  modern  age  as  to  have  said,  "  The  good  time  coming 
is  at  hand  "  ? 

But  no  title  which  leaves  out  God  can  truly  express 
a  state  of  blessing  for  men.  And  in  the  title  "  kingdom 
of  God  "  His  holy  Name  appears  not  merely  because  of 
His  rule  in  the  kingdom,  but  because  of  His  gifts  ;  not 
merely  because  His  will  is  obeyed  in  it,  but  because  His 
unbounded  love  and  grace  work  in  it  and  make  it  what 
it  is, — a  blessed  fellowship  of  men  with  God  and  with 
one  another.     It  is  the  kingdom  of  the  Father, 


THE  BASIS  OF  HIS  TEACHING  23 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  BASIS  OF   HIS   TEACHING — GOD   THE  FATHER 

The  Doctrine  of  God  fundamental — Jesus'  teaching  expressed 
in  one  word,  "The  Father" — This  peculiarly  His  own 
— Two  great  debts  we  owe  to  Jesus — We  escape  from 
uncertainty  and  error  about  God,  not  by  philosophic 
argument,  nor  by  scientific  discovery,  but  through  Jesus 
— His  knowledge  of  the  Father  passes  to  us  by  spiritual 
contagion — His  chaiacter  interprets  God's  Fatherhood 
— His  other  teachings  based  on  this — This  the  great 
spring  of  human  hope. 

TTAVING  found  what  is  the  great  subject  of  the 
•■-  -'■  teaching  of  Jesus  —  namely,  The  Kingdom  of 
God — we  go  on  to  inquire  whether  His  teaching  has 
any  one  fundamental  truth,  on  which  it  rests.  The 
teaching  of  Jesus  is  on  a  great  variety  of  topics,  and  it  is 
not  connected  together  by  argument  or  logical  deduction. 
The  truths  He  utters  stand  by  themselves  and,  with- 
out other  support,  find  ready  response  in  the  true  soul. 
But  undoubtedly  we  do  find  such  a  single  basis  of  all 
His  teaching  in  His  doctrine  of  God.  On  short  reflection, 
we  see  that  the  character  of  the  answers  to  be  made  to 
the  greatest  questions  about  ourselves  and  our  destiny 
must  depend  ultimately  on  the  doctrine  we  have  of  God. 
We  possess  life — this  we  know.  But  how  have  we  it  ? 
Whence  have  we  come  ?  Why  are  we  here  ?  Whither 
are  we  going?  What  is  "right"  and  our  duty?  And 
why  do  we  feel  the  claim  of  duty  so  imperative  ?  The 
answers  to  all  these  supreme  questions  are  determined  by 
the  doctrine  of  God  with  which  we  start.  Our  doctrine 
may  be  that  there  is  no  God,  or  that  man  can  know  nothing 


24  OUR  LORDS  TEACHING 

of  Him,  or  that  He  is  personal  and  our  Almighty 
Creator.  But,  whatever  it  be,  in  it  will  be  found  the 
root  from  which  spring  our  beliefs  on  all  the  great 
subjects  that  chiefly  concern  us. 

Looking,  then,  for  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  concerning 
God,  one  word  expresses  it  in  such  a  manner  that  it  is  im- 
mediately recognisable,  and  easily  distinguished  from  the 
teaching  of  all  other  religions,  viz.  '*  The  Father."  In  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  that  word  was  first  uttered — so  far  as 
our  records  tell — at  the  well  of  Samaria.  In  the  same 
sentence  almost  in  which  He  said  "  God  is  a  Spirit," 
He  named  God  by  this  name,  "  The  Father"  (John  iv. 
21-24). 

We  have  said  that  this  doctrine  is  distinctive  of  Jesus 
and  peculiarly  His  own.  Confucius  in  China,  and 
Buddha  in  India,  did  indeed  teach,  centuries  before 
Jesus,  many  good  rules  of  life  and  conduct ;  but  they 
taught  no  doctrine  of  God.  Both  seem  to  have  thought 
any  knowledge  of  God  quite  beyond  man's  reach.  It  may 
be  admitted  that  the  ancient  people  of  Hindostan,  of  the 
Vedic  faith,  looked  up  to  the  sky,  from  which  came  the 
blessings  they  valued  most,  and  worshipped  the  "Heaven- 
Father."  But  they  did  not  come  near  to  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  about  God  as  a  personal  Father.  They  spoke 
only  as  we  do  when  in  poetry  we  use  the  expression 
"Mother  Earth."  Among  the  Greeks,  again,  we  find 
in  Plato's  myths  the  title,  "  Father  and  Framer  "  of  the 
Universe ;  but  the  doctrine  of  God  is  vague,  and  He  is 
thought  of  as  far  removed  from  men.  To  the  Jews  it 
was  given  to  attain  the  highest  place  among  all  ancient 
nations  in  divine  knowledge.  They  worshipped  the  same 
personal  and  eternal  God  of  Whom  Jesus  taught.  The 
holiness  and  righteousness  of  God  are  nobly  expressed 
in  their  Scriptures ;  His  tender  pity  also ;  and  they 
attained  sometimes  to  the  thought  of  His  being  the  Father 
of  Israel  as  a  nation,  or  of  its  theocratic  King.  We  find 
such  sayings  as  these  in  the  Old  Testament — **  Israel  is  my 
son,  my  firstborn"  (Ex.  iv.  22).  "When  Israel  was  a 
child,  then  I  loved  him,  and  called  my  son  out  of  Egypt " 


THE  BASIS  OP  HIS   TEACHING  25 


(Hos.  xi.  I).  "I  will  make  him  {i.e.  David,  or  the  Son 
of  David)  my  firstborn,  the  highest  of  the  kings  of  the 
earth  "  (Psa.  Ixxxix.  27).  But  the  sublime  faith  that  God 
is  the  Father  of  individual  men,  and  of  all  men,  was  never 
reached  in  all  the  Old  Testament.  One  sufficient  proof 
of  the  immense  difference  between  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
and  the  highest  level  of  Old  Testament  devotion  is  the 
single  fact  that  in  St.  Matthew's  Gospel  alone  Jesus 
speaks  of  God  as  Father—*'  My  Father,"  «  Your  Father, 
or  "The  Father"— more  than  forty  times,  while  in  the 
Book  of  Psalms— high,  personal,  and  intimate  as  the 
devotion  is — God  is  never  once  so  addressed. 

The  debt  we  owe  to  Jesus  for  this  doctrine  of  God  is 
profound,  and  it  may  be  well  to  detain  our  thoughts  upon 
it  here  that  we  may  form  some  right  estimate  of  it.  Not 
merely  Jews  and  men  of  that  generation  were  indebted  to 
Him  for  what  He  taught  of  God,  but  every  generation 
since,  and  not  least  our  own.  Two  things  we  owe  Him, 
both  of  great  price,  the  first,  a  strong  assurance  that  God 
is  ;  the  second,  an  assurance  that  He  is  "The  Father." 

Vast  multitudes  of  men  and  many  nations  have  had 
very  dim  and  uncertain  thoughts  about  God.  Even  their 
best  and  highest  men  have  had  great  doubts  of  His  exist- 
ence, or  painful  doubts  of  His  character,  or  sad  errors  and 
misbeliefs  about  Him.  To  good  and  righteous  men  it  has 
always  been  painfiil  not  to  be  sure  that  the  world  is 
governed  by  a  living,  thinking  Person.  An  awful  and 
terrible  world  it  would  be  if  the  stroke  of  death,  and  all 
the  thousand  woes  of  human  life,  came  with  no  reason,  but 
just  by  blind,  unthinking  chance.  If  human  beings,  so 
sensitive  as  they  are,  feeling  so  acutely  and  liable  to  so 
grievous  suffering,  were  under  the  government  of  a  dead, 
unthinking  system  which  we  call  «' Nature"— dead  and 
cruel  as  the  stone  that  falls  from  the  mountain,  blindly 
inflicting  on  men  whatever  its  chance  directs— what  a 
tyranny  that  would  be  !  "  If  I  could  not  believe,"  said 
one,  "that  there  is  a  thinking  mind  at  the  centre  of 
things,  life  would  be  to  me  intolerable." 

There  has  been,  of  course,  in  all  ages  and  countnes, 


26  OUR  LORDS  TEACHING 

some  idea  of  God  abiding  in  the  minds  of  men,  with  a 
tendency  to  worship  and  religion ;  but  good  men  every- 
where have  longed  for  certainty.  They  have  longed 
to  find  God,  and  they  have  longed  to  find  Him  to  be 
just  and  good  and  interested  in  men.  They  have 
sought  Him,  but  have  not  been  able  assuredly  to  find 
Him.  These  words  of  Job  (xxiii.  3,  8,  9)  express  the  heart 
and  mind  of  many  like  himself,  in  many  lands,  especially 
in  times  when  the  riddle  of  their  own  or  the  world's 
sorrow  pressed  upon  them — 

Oh  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find  Him, 

That  I  might  come  even  to  His  seat !  .  .  . 

Behold,  I  go  forward,  but  He  is  not  there ; 

And  backward,  but  I  cannot  perceive  Him  : 

On  the  left  hand,  where  He  doth  work,  but  I  cannot  behold 

Him: 
He  hideth  Himself  on  the  right  hand,  that  I  cannot  see 

Him. 

Now,  if  we  in  this  day,  we  who  read  these  pages, 
have  an  assured  knowledge  of  God  and  know  Him  as  a 
Father,  how  have  we  come  to  this  ?  Is  it  by  argument  ? 
Is  it  that  in  these  latter  days  we  have  so  perfected  the 
arguments  for  the  existence  of  God,  and  smoothed  away 
the  difficulties  which  the  world  suggests  as  to  His 
character?  Hardly  so.  The  arguments  for  God's 
existence  have  indeed  great  strength  ;  they  outweigh,  we 
think,  those  against  it.  But  they  do  not  suffice,  when 
we  lean  upon  them,  to  give  us  a  steadfast  assurance  ; 
they  do  not  sustain  us  in  communion  with  God. 
**  Strange  I"  it  has  been  well  said,  "God  is  the  most 
necessary  of  all  beings,  yet  no  argument  for  His  existence 
has  ever  been  constructed  that  was  satisfying  to  every 
mind." 

Is  it,  then,  by  science  and  its  discoveries,  of  which 
we  are  so  proud  in  our  day,  that  we  have  come  to 
assurance  about  God  ?  No,  indeed  !  To  many  minds 
these  discoveries  increase  the  difficulty ;  they  make  the 
universe  so  vast  and  seem  to  put  God  so  far  away ;  with 


THE  BASIS  OF  HIS  TEACHING  27 

the  enlargement  of  our  knowledge,  God  seems  to  be 
more  and  more  withdrawn  from  the  world ;  and,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  many  men,  eminent  in  science,  are  not 
believers. 

How,  then,  do  we  have  that  assurance  of  God  and  of 
His  character  which  we  have  claimed  ?  The  answer  is, 
by  the  Lord  Jesus  and  by  His  teaching.  To  Him  this 
age  is  indebted  for  that  faith,  which,  with  its  profound  com- 
fort, might  have  died  out  or  gone  near  to  dying  out,  in 
spite  of  all  the  enlightenment  and  knowledge  of  which 
in  these  days  we  boast.  The  light  of  science,  but  for  the 
abiding  power  of  Jesus  and  His  teaching,  might  have 
been  darkness  as  regards  what  is  highest  and  best  in  men, 
namely  their  faith  in  God,  and  those  elements  in  their 
character  which  depend  on  that  faith.  Now,  as  in  days 
long  past,  the  words  of  St.  John  are  true  :  "  No  man  hath 
seen  God  at  any  time  ;  the  only  begotten  Son,  which  is 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  he  hath  declared  him" 
(John  i.  18). 

But  how  is  it  that  we  find  the  teaching  of  Jesus  so 
effectual  in  this  matter  ?  How  is  it  that  He  is  able  to 
sustain  us  in  this  great  faith  ?  He  is  able  to  do  this  and 
does  it  because  He  had  in  His  bosom  so  perfect  a  know- 
ledge of  God,  and  so  unique  a  sense  of  God  as  Father. 
Therefore  He  could  convey  it  to  us.  He  does  not  perhaps 
anywhere  directly  say  that  God  is  and  is  a  Father.  He 
assumes  this — lives  in  it  Himself ;  and  there  is  something 
in  our  Lord's  converse  about  His  Father,  and  with  His 
Father,  that  carries  assurance  to  our  hearts.  When  we 
hear  Him  say,  "  My  Father  worketh  even  until  now,  and 
I  work  "  ;  •*  I  am  not  alone,  because  the  Father  is  with 
me";  "The  Father  knoweth  me,  and  I  know  the 
Father  '*;  "The  things  which  I  speak,  even  as  the  Father 
hath  said  unto  me,  so  I  speak  " ;  "  The  Father  loveth 
the  Son,  and  sheweth  him  all  things  that  himself  doeth  " 
(John  v.  17  ;  xvi.  32 ;  x.  15  ;  xii.  50;  v.  20).  As  we 
hear  Him  so  speak,  a  hush  comes  over  our  souls.  We  feel 
that  He  is  speaking  of  One  whom  He  knows.  And 
when  we  read  of  Jesus  lifting  up  His  eyes  to  heaven  and 


a8  OUR  LORD^S  TEACHING 

praying,  "Father!"  "Holy  Father!"  "O  righteous 
Father  ! "  or  of  His  saying,  "  Yea,  Father,  for  so  it  was 
well-pleasing  in  thy  sight,"  we  cannot  doubt  there  was 
One  to  whom  He  spoke. 

If  any  should  dare  to  say  to  us,  **  There  was  no  one ; 
Jesus  spoke  as  the  prophets  of  Baal  did,  who  cried  and 
there  was  no  one  to  answer  ;  He  may  have  been  deceived 
as  they  were  ; "  we  should  put  away  the  thought  with 
pity  for  those  who  can  entertain  it.  And  when,  as  so 
often,  He  speaks  to  us  of  our  heavenly  Father,  or  when 
He  says,  •'  I  ascend  unto  my  Father  and  your  Father, 
and  my  God  and  your  God"  (John  xx.  17),  we  come 
by  spiritual  contact  with  Him  to  have  an  assurance  about 
God  and  about  the  character  of  God,  as  great  as  the 
truth  of  Jesus,  as  strong  as  the  authority  of  which  we  are 
conscious  in  Him, — ^nd  this  is  sufficient  as  a  stay  for  our 
life. 

There  is,  indeed,  a  further  assurance  which  we  get 
in  intercourse  with  God.  After  Jesus  has  quickened 
in  us  a  dormant  faculty  or  weakened  instinct  for  the 
knowledge  of  God  as  our  heavenly  Father,  we  then 
come  to  have  a  direct  knowledge  of  God  by  com- 
munion with  Him.  But  whenever  this  childlike  instinct 
is  again  weakened,  and  that  direct  knowledge  grows  faint 
within  us,  and  we  come  to  be  in  doubt  of  God,  we  can 
fall  back  on  the  perfect  knowledge  we  find  in  Jesus,  and, 
by  contact  with  Him,  by  habitually  listening  to  His  words, 
we  can  maintain  a  faith  in  God  as  the  Father  which  will 
stand  the  utmost  strain  of  our  life. 

The  name  *'  Father  "  is  not  indeed  of  itself  sufficient  to 
secure  right  thoughts  of  God.  If  this  name  is  used  without 
belief  in  Jesus,  there  is  danger  of  God  being  misinterpreted. 
Men  may  call  Him  *'  Father"  and  understand  the  name 
as  if  it  implied  weak  indulgence,  or  tolerance  of  sin,  and 
a  slack  government  of  men  and  of  the  world.  But  it 
cannot  be  so  understood  from  the  lips  of  Jesus,  who  is 
Himself  so  holy,  and  who  prays  with  such  reverence, 
*'Holy  Father!"  **0  righteous  Father!"  The  word 
*'  Father  "  has  a  sure  meaning  to  us,  when  interpreted 


THE  BASIS  OP  HIS  TEACHING  29 

by  the  character  of  Jesus,  His  Son,  who  Himself  says, 
**  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father "  (John 
xiv.  9). 

How  truly  this  knowledge  of  God  as  the  Father  is  the 
basis  of  Jesus'  teaching,  and  how  noble  a  superstructure 
of  teaching  it  is  fitted  to  bear,  will  readily  appear.  The 
Psalms  express  the  faith  and  devotion  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  in  them  the  characteristic  title  of  God  is 
*«King."  "My  King  and  my  God"  (Psa.  v.  2). 
"The  King  of  Glory"  (Psa.  xxiv.  10).  "The  Lord 
sitteth  as  king  for  ever"  (Psa.  xxix.  10).  If  God  be 
thought  of  as  King,  the  highest  place  that  can  be  given 
to  men  is  that  of  servants  of  God.  So  the  great  Law- 
giver is  spoken  of  as  "Moses,  the  servant  of  the  Lord," 
and  the  title  of  Messiah  in  that  highest  Old  Testament 
prophecy  in  the  second  half  of  Isaiah  is,  "  The  servant  of 
the  Lord."  But,  with  belief  in  God  as  the  Father,  the 
calling  of  men  to  be  sons  of  God  becomes  possible.  The 
way  is  prepared  for  the  joyful  cry,  "  Behold  what  manner 
of  love  the  Father  hath  bestowed  upon  us,  that  we  should 
be  called  children  of  God  !  "  (i  John  iii.  i) 

The  whole  idea  of  the  kingdom  of  God  also  is  changed 
when  it  is  thought  of  as  the  kingdom  of  the  Father. 
Love  becomes  its  great  uniting  bond  rather  than  law, 
and  the  liberty  of  sons  its  characteristic  feeling  rather 
than  the  obedience  of  servants. 

The  Fatherhood  of  God,  again,  is  the  one  sure  basis  of 
the  brotherhood  of  men  ;  and  the  hope  of  the  inheritance 
of  the  sons  of  God  springs  from  the  same  root. 

On  the  doctrine  of  God's  Fatherhood  follows  also,  as 
a  natural  consequence,  the  wonderful  teaching  of  Jesus 
in  regard  to  God's  providential  care  of  us  during  this 
present  life — a  care  down  to  the  numbering  of  the  very 
hairs  of  our  head. 

And  this  doctrine  of  God's  Fatherhood  is  especially 
the  root  and  basis  of  all  that  Jesus  taught  of  grace  and  of 
redemption  from  sin.  If  God  be  King,  we  conclude 
that  He  will  judge.  If  He  be  the  righteous  King,  we 
conclude  that  He  will  judge  and  reward  justly.     But,  if 


30  OUR  LORDS  TEACHING 

He  be  the  Father,  we  are  prepared  to  know  that  He  will 
seek  His  lost  child  until  He  find  him,  and  that  when  the 
child  comes  to  Him  with  the  cry,  "  Father,  I  have  sinned," 
he  will  be  received  with  the  welcome  so  wonderfully 
imaged  in  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  a  parable 
which  has  been  truly  said  to  have  of  itself  alone  exercised 
more  influence  on  mankind  than  all  the  philosophies. 

It  has  been  said,  and  indeed  proved,  that  in  the  first 
centuries  of  our  era,  when  throughout  the  Roman  world 
faith  had  decayed,  and  liberty  and  worthy  aims  of  life 
had  failed,  Christianity  restored  hope  to  mankind.  The 
age  we  live  in  owes  to  Jesus  and  His  teaching  a  similar 
debt.  In  this  age  we  have  seen  pessimism  advance  its 
sad  account  of  human  life.  The  question,  "  Is  life  worth 
living?"  has  seemed  in  some  circles  open  to  debate. 
The  loss  of  faith  in  God  is  a  sufficient  explanation.  If 
there  were  no  God,  this  sadness  would  be  fully  justified. 
To  Jesus  we  owe  it — to  Him  in  whose  earthly  life,  as 
in  a  glass,  we  see  the  image  of  the  Father,  and  from  whose 
words  we  catch  the  happy  contagion  of  faith  in  the  Father 
— to  Him  we  owe  it  that  hope  grows  instead  of  being 
quenched,  that  it  animates  thousands  of  souls,  and  that  it 
inspires  the  onward  march  of  the  Church  and  of  mankind. 


And  what  though  earth  and  sea  His  glory  do  proclaim, 
Though  on  the  stars  is  writ  that  great  and  dreadful  Name  ; 
Yea — hear  me,  Son  of  Man — with  tears  my  eyes  are  dim, 
I  cannot  read  the  word  that  calls  me  close  to  Him  ; 
I  say  it  after  Thee,  with  faltering  voice  and  weak, 
♦•  Father  of  Jesus  Christ " — this  is  the  God  I  seek. 

Anonymous^ 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  HIMSELF  31 


CHAPTER  V 

HIS   TEACHING   ABOUT   HIMSELF 

Jesus  Himself  the  great  problem — Avowed  Himself  the 
Messiah,  but  not  plainly  at  first — Spoke  of  Himself  as 
"The  Son  of  Man"  or  "The  Son  of  God"— Both 
titles  practically  new  to  hearers — "The  Son  of  Man" 
implies  that  He  was  (i)  true  man,  {2)  ideal  and  repre- 
sentative man  ;  ' '  The  Son  of  God  "  implies  that  He  was 
(i)  a  true  Son  of  God,  proved  by  His  intimacy  with 
the  Father,  (2)  such  a  Son  as  no  other  is  (a)  in  perfect 
nearness,  {b)  in  eternal  being — Value  to  us  of  these 
titles — One  assuring  that  God  is  love — Another  assur- 
ing of  human  sympathy  of  Jesus — The  title  "The 
Christ "  showing  Him  to  be  the  core  and  goal  of  history. 

JESUS  presented  Himself  as  a  problem  to  His  country- 
men, and  after  He  had  been  manifested  to  them  for 
a  sufficient  time,  the  testing  questions  He  put  to  His 
disciples  were  these — *'  Whom  do  men  say  that  I  am  ?  " 
and,  "Whom  say  ye  that  I  am?"  On  the  answer  to 
this  latter  question  it  depended  whether  Jesus  would  find 
material  for  the  foundation  of  a  church  ;  and  when  Peter 
answered  well,  His  Master  accorded  him  solemn  praise — 
"  Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Bar-Jonah  :  for  flesh  and  blood 
hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my  Father  which  is 
in  heaven"  (Matt.  xvi.  16,  17).  Still,  in  our  time,  Jesus 
is  the  great  problem  and  the  unexhausted  subject  of 
human  inquiry  ;  still  this  question  meets  us  and  must 
be  answered — "Whom  say  ye  that  I  am?"  To  pass 
this  question  by  woiild  be  to  confess  indifference  to  the 
highest  things.  The  most  searching  and  the  surest  test 
of  character  is  what  we  think  of  Jesus. 


32  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

Brought  up  as  we  are  in  the  Christian  Church,  and 
early  taught  its  creeds,  we  cannot  approach  the  subject 
without  prepossessions.  Nor  can  we  forget  the  teachings 
about  the  person  of  Jesus  given  by  His  great  apostles 
Paul  and  John.  We  have  leant  upon  these,  perhaps,  in 
our  life  and  they  have  become  precious  elements  of  our 
faith.  But  in  an  age  of  questioning,  when  we  are 
anxious  to  make  sure  in  regard  to  what  we  believe,  there 
is  great  interest  for  us  in  the  inquiry.  What  did  Jesus 
teach  aboat  Himself?  What  was  His  own  consciousness 
of  Himself? 

In  one  respect  there  was  great  reserve  in  His  teach- 
ing about  Himself.  Not  till  near  the  end  of  His  ministry 
did  He  openly  avow  Himself,  or  allow  Himself  to  be 
declared  the  Messiah,  the  Christ.  Often  before,  indeed, 
the  consciousness  of  such  a  greatness  showed  itself  in 
incidental  sayings.  In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  He 
assumed  that  He  would  be  the  final  judge  of  men — 
**  Many  will  say  to  me  in  that  day,  Lord,  Lord,  did  we 
not  prophesy  by  thy  name,  and  by  thy  name  cast  out 
devils  ?  .  .  .  And  then  will  I  profess  unto  them,  I  never 
knew  you  :  depart  from  me,  ye  that  work  iniquity " 
(Matt.  vii.  22,  23).  It  was  of  Himself  He  said — "A 
greater  than  Solomon  is  here "  (Matt.  xii.  42).  An 
immense  claim  on  men's  allegiance  was  implied  in  these 
other  words  of  His — **  If  any  man  cometh  unto  me,  and 
hateth  not  his  own  father,  and  mother,  and  wife,  and 
children,  and  brethren,  and  sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  life 
also,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple  "  (Luke  xiv.  26).  And 
how  majestic  these  sayings — *'  I  am  the  bread  of  life," 
**  I  am  the  light  of  the  world,"  "  I  am  the  resurrection, 
and  the  life,"  **  I  am  the  way,  and  the  truth,  and  the 
life"  (John  vi.  35  ;  viii.  12  ;  xi.  25  ;  xiv.  6).  But  He 
long  withheld  from  the  Jews  the  plain  announcement 
that  He  was  the  Christ.  Obviously  He  did  so  because 
this  title  had  been  so  tarnished  and  carnalised  in  their 
thoughts  that  He  would  have  been  quite  misunderstood. 
Had  He  said  to  the  Jews  as  frankly  as  to  the  woman  of 
Samaria,  "  I  am  the  Christ,"  He  would  have  been  taken 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  HIMSELF  33 

to  mean  that  He  was  an  earthly  King  of  an  earthly 
kingdom  such  as  they  were  looking  for,  and  their 
rage  of  disappointment,  speedily  following,  would  have 
led  to  His  death  before  He  had  had  time  to  win 
true  disciples  by  His  life  and  teaching.  It  became 
necessary,  therefore,  for  Jesus  to  present  Himself  for 
great  part  of  His  time  among  men,  as  it  were,  incognito. 
He  was  the  Messiah  long  foretold  and  prepared  for ;  He 
accepted  the  title  privately,  and  also  publicly  in  the  end 
(see  Matt.  xvi.  16,  17  ;  and  xxvi.  63,  64)  j  but  He  did 
not  commonly  or  early  use  it. 

Two  names  He  used,  the  one  with  equal  freedom  in 
Judaea  and  Galilee,  The  Son  of  Man  ;  the  other  mostly 
in  His  debates  with  the  Jewish  leaders    at  Jerusalem, 
The  Son  of  God.     Both  of  these  were — so  far  as  meeting 
the  expectation  of  the  Jews  went — incognito  titles.      We 
must,  in  studying  them,  put  aside  the  idea  that  Jesus  took 
either  of  these  names  from  the  Old  Testament  and  used 
it  because  it  was  an  understood  equivalent  for  the  Messiah. 
Neither  of  them   was   such    a    title.     That   passage   in 
Daniel  (vii.  13),  usually  supposed  to  contain  one  of  them 
should  be  translated,  not,  "like  to  the  Son  of  Man," 
but  "like  unto  a  son  of  man,"  and  it  merely  conveyed 
that  the  kingdom  of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High  was 
typified  by  a  human  figure,  while  the  types  of  the  former 
and  lower  kingdoms  were  bestial  figures — a  lion,  a  bear,  a 
leopard.    And  again,  although  the  Old  Testament  texts — 
"Thou   art  my  son;  this  day  have   I   begotten  thee" 
(Psa.  ii.  7);  "I  will  be  his  father,  and  he  shall  be  my 
son"  (2  Sam.  vii.  14) ;  and  "  I  will  make  him  my  first- 
born" (Psa.   Ixxxix.   27) — were   taken  as  Messianic,  it 
was  only  in  a  vague,  honorific,  and  comparatively  distant 
sense  that  the  Messiah  was  expected  to  be  a  son  of  God. 
That  these  two  names  were  not  recognised  by  the  people 
as  distinct  Messianic  titles  is  plain  from  the  fact  that,  after 
Jesus  had  long  and  often  spoken  of  Himself  as  the  Son  of 
Man,  and  the  Son  of  God,  they  still  asked,  "  Who  is  this 
Son  of  Man?"  and  said,  "  If  thou  be  the  Christ,  tell  us 
plainly. " 

3 


34  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

From  whence,  then,  came  these  two  titles  which  Jesus 
applied  to  Himself?  If  they  were  not  taken  from  the 
Old  Testament  as  prophetic  synonyms  for  the  Messiah, 
and  were  practically  new  to  His  hearers,  whence  came 
they?  We  answer,  they  came  out  of  His  own  heart. 
They  were  the  expression  of  His  own  consciousness  of 
Himself.^  Two  things  He  felt  and  knew  Himself  in 
experience  to  be,  the  one  of  which  brought  Him  into 
profound  fellowship  with  men,  while  the  other  kept 
Him  in  intimate  fellowship  with  God.  Out  of  the 
former  consciousness  He  called  Himself  "the  Son  of 
Man  "  ;  out  of  the  latter,  "  The  Son  of  God." 

First  let  us  study  the  title,  "  The  Son  of  Man  "—that 
pathetic  title,  in  the  utterance  of  which  we  may  almost 
perceive  a  thrill  in  the  voice  of  Jesus.  Two  chief  truths 
are  conveyed  by  it,  the  reality  of  the  humanity  of  Jesus 
("Son  of  Man"),  and  the  uniqueness  of  it  (**  The  Son 
of  Man  ").  * '  Son  of  Man  "  is  a  Hebraism  which  expresses 
the  possession  of  true  human  nature,  with  its  characteristic 
weakness  and  creaturely  dependence,  with  its  character- 
Istic  eminence  in  creation,  also,  and  its  characteristic 
glory  on  account  of  God's  condescension  to  it.  "  When 
I  consider  thy  heavens,  the  work  of  thy  fingers,  the  moon 
and  the  stars,  which  thou  hast  ordained ;  what  is  man, 
that  thou  art  mindful  of  him?  and  the  son  of  man, 
that  thou  visitest  him  ?  For  thou  hast  made  him  but 
little  lower  than  God,  and  crownest  him  with  glory  and 
honour  "  (Ps.  viii.  3-5).  Jesus  by  taking  the  name  *•  Son 
of  Man  "  signified  His  sharing  in  this  lot  at  once  mean 
and  high,  of  which  Pascal  said  :  "  If  you  exalt  man,  I 
will  abase  him;  if  you  abase  him,  I  will  exalt  him." 
He  expressed  also  by  it  His  community  of  feeling  with 
men.  His  sharing  in  human  affections  and  interests,  His 
true  experience  of  human  life.  His  liability  to  temptation, 
His  exposure  like  other  men  to  hunger  and  thirst,  suffer- 
ing and  death. 

1  The  title  "The  Son  of  Man,"  does  indeed  occur  for  the  Messiah 
in  the  book  of  Enoch,  written  in  the  century  before  our  Lord  ;  but 
that  is  a  book  which  we  cannot  think  of  as  either  a  source  or  a  mould 
of  our  Lord's  teaching. 


HIS    TEACHING  ABOUT  HIMSELF  35 


But,  besides  all  this,  in  naming  Himself,  The  Son  of 
Man — of  which  the  equivalent  in  English  idiom  is,  shortly, 
The  Man — He  described  Himself  as  the  unique  and 
ideal  Man,  the  Man  in  whom  humanity  is  summed  up, 
and  the  "fulness  of  the  race  made  visible,"  who  is  the 
Head  and  Representative  not  of  the  Jews  only,  but  of 
all  nations  of  men,  in  whom  both  sexes,  and  all  ranks, 
learned  and  unlearned,  men  of  thought  and  men  of 
action  find  example  and  sympathy.  This  is  a  title 
by  which  Jesus  de-judaises  Himself,  as  has  been  said, 
and  places  Himself  in  such  relation  to  the  whole 
race  of  men  that  their  enemies  are  His  enemies,  their 
sorrows  His,  their  burdens  His.  He  is  bound  up  with 
their  destiny.  And  as  the  race  is  so  summed  up  and 
represented  in  Him,  He  is,  in  St.  Paul's  language,  the 
second  Adam. 

Coming  now  to  the  other  name  and  title  used  for  Him- 
self by  Jesus,  *'  The  Son  of  God  "  (which  we  meet  with 
most  frequently  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  John,  though  not 
there  alone),  we  find  here  again  two  chief  things  implied 
— the  reality  of  His  Sonship,  and  the  uniqueftess  of  it. 

In  the  discourses  or  debates  of  Jesus  with  the  leaders 
of  the  Jews  at  Jerusalem,  what  we  find  Him  most  fre- 
quently pressing  on  them  is  the  reality  and  intimacy  of 
His  Sonship  with  God.  These  debates  are  profoundly 
interesting,  beginning  with  that  unsurpassed  example  of 
them  in  the  fifth  chapter.  As  we  read  them  we  are 
startled  at  first,  for  it  seems  as  if  Jesus  were  violating 
His  own  rule,  not  to  give  that  which  is  holy  to  the  un- 
clean, nor  to  cast  pearls  before  swine.  To  men  incredu- 
lous and  hostile  He  discloses  the  secret  ways  of  His 
intercourse  with  His  Father,  and  the  beauty  of  the  love 
that  expressed  itself  in  that  intercourse.  After  His  first 
words,  so  surprising  for  the  nearness  to  God  which  they 
assume  :  '*  My  Father  worketh  even  until  now,  and  I 
work,"  He  goes  on  to  tell  of  the  absolute  dependence  of 
the  Son  on  the  Father,  and  the  entire  acceptance  by  the 
Son  of  the  Father's  will.  We  think  it  worthy  of  a  true 
child  to  say,   "  I   cannot  but  obey  my  father."     This 


36  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

•'  cannot"  is  noble.  It  is  in  the  same  moral  sphere  as 
Luther's  heroic,  "Here  I  stand,  I  can  do  no  other  :  so 
help  me  Godl"  Similarly  Jesus  says,  "The  Son  can 
do  nothing  of  himself,  but  what  he  seeth  the  Father  doing: 
for  what  things  soever  he  doeth,  these  the  Son  also 
doeth  in  like  manner."  *'  I  can  of  myself  do  nothing." 
'*  I  seek  not  mine  own  will,  but  the  will  of  him  that  sent 
me"  (John  v.  19,  30).  **  I  spake  not  from  myself;  but  the 
Father  which  sent  me,  he  hath  given  me  a  commandment, 
what  I  should  say,  and  what  I  should  speak  "  (John 
xii.  49);  "I  am  come  in  my  Father's  name"  (John  v. 
43).  Jesus  represents  Himself  also  as  constantly,  like  a 
true  Son,  watching  the  Father's  example,  and  open  in 
ear  to  the  Father's  words ;  while  the  Father  again  in 
His  love  to  the  Son  has  no  reserves  with  Him,  and  does 
not  withhold  from  Him  the  greatest  powers.  **  The 
Father  loveth  the  Son,  and  sheweth  him  all  things  that 
himself  doeth  :  and  greater  works  than  these  will  he 
shew  him,  that  ye  may  marvel."  "The  Father  hath 
given  all  judgement  unto  the  Son  ;  that  all  may  honour 
the  Son,  even  as  they  honour  the  Father."  "As  the 
Father  hath  life  in  himself,  even  so  gave  he  to  the  Son 
also  to  have  life  in  himself"  (John  v.  20,  23,  26). 

What  did  Jesus  intend  by  this  openness  to  men  so 
hostile  ?  His  chief  purpose  doubtless  was  to  influence 
their  convictions,  that  they  might  be  saved  (John  v.  34), 
to  prove  Himself  the  Son  by  the  most  direct  and  con- 
vincing of  all  proofs,  viz.  that  of  laying  open  to  them 
His  actual  and  constant  filial  intercourse  with  God,  in 
the  beauty  and  perfect  naturalness  of  it  which  could  not 
be  feigned.  The  reality  of  it  would  be  proved  by  its 
simple  beauty.  He  allowed,  as  it  were,  ray  after  ray  of 
His  filial  glory  to  shine  forth  upon  them  ;  and  had  they 
not  been  utterly  blinded  by  prejudice  they  would  have  felt 
how  truly  from  the  heart  Jesus  spoke,  and  would  have 
seen  those  rays  of  His  glory  to  be  so  sweet  and  heavenly 
that  their  faith  would  have  been  won. 

The  Sonship  of  Jesus  is  real ;  it  is  also  unique.  There 
is,  indeed,  in  much  that  Jesus  says  about  His  intercourse 


HIS   TEACHING  ABOUT  HIMSELF  37 

with  His  Father,  nothing  different  in  kind  from  that  son- 
ship  with  God  which  is  possible  for  us,  and  is  familiar  in 
the  experience  of  all  true  children  of  God.  But  there  is  a 
manifest  difference  in  degree.  His  intercourse  with  the 
Father  is  perfect,  complete,  and  unmarred  by  sin.  All 
that  Jesus  says  or  does  He  knows  to  be  of  God.  **  I  do 
nothing  of  myself,  but,  as  the  Father  taught  me,  I  speak 
these  things "  (John  viii.  28).  Jesus  was  conscious  of 
no  barrier,  "no  film  of  separation  between  Himself  and 
the  Being  of  all  beings. "  *'  He  that  sent  me  is  with  me; 
he  hath  not  left  me  alone  ;  for  I  do  always  the  things 
that  are  pleasing  to  him  "  Qohn  viii.  29).  So  Jesus 
calls  Himself  the  Son  of  God,  or  the  Son.  He  is  the 
Son  as  no  one  else  is,  from  the  completeness  with  which 
His  Sonship  is  realised  and  constantly  lived  out. 

But  another  question  is  of  profound  interest  to  us. 
Does  Jesus  teach  the  uniqueness  of  His  Sonship  on  other 
grounds  ?  Does  He  make  Himself  not  merely  the  ideai. 
and  perfect  Son,  but  the  eternal  Son  ?  Does  He  teach 
anywhere  His  pre-existence  before  coming  into  the  world, 
or  His  eternity  of  being,  or  His  equality  with  the  Father  ? 

It  is  unmistakable  that  He  is  the  Son  of  God  as  no 
one  else  is  among  men,  in  perfection  of  communion,  un- 
broken and  complete,  not  marred  by  sin,  never  wanting 
in  full  response  either  on  His  part  or  on  the  Father's. 
The  terms  in  which  this  communion  is  described  seem 
to  require  the  doctrinal  faith  in  which  we  have  been 
brought  up,  that  Jesus  is  of  one  essence  with  the  Father, 
and  one  in  eternal  being  with  Him.  But  does  Jesus 
anywhere  say  so  much  as  this  of  Himself?  In  many  pass- 
ages He  speaks  so  that  nothing  short  of  it  seems  implied. 
His  pre-existence  is  surely  involved  in  such  sayings  as 
this :  "I  came  out  from  the  Father,  and  am  come  into 
the  world  :  again,  I  leave  the  world,  and  go  unto  the 
Father  "  (John  xvi.  28).  We  may  say  with  much  certainty 
that  it  is  implied  in  this:  "Glorify  thou  me  ,  .  .  with 
the  glory  which  I  had  with  thee  before  the  world  was  " 
(John  xvii.  5).  And,  though  the  expression,  **  I  and  the 
Father  are  one  "  (John  x.  30)  may  be  understood  of  a 


38  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

moral  yinity,  and  not  expressly  of  a  unity  of  essence — though 
this  may  with  difficulty  be  so  taken — in  that  other  saying 
of  Jesus,  ^'Before  Abraham  was,  I  am"  (John  viii.  58),  that 
timeless  "  I  am,"  cannot,  we  think,  be  understood  as  ex- 
pressing less  than  eternal  being.  The  words  were  sacred 
to  Jewish  hearers  as  the  name  of  the  self-existent  God 
revealed  to  Moses  (Exodus  iii.  14),  and  Jesus  could  not 
have  spoken  them  to  such  hearers  in  a  quite  lower  sense. 
Jesus  accepted  also  that  supreme  confession  of  Thomas, 
in  making  which  this  last  of  the  eleven  disciples  became 
the  first — "My  Lord  and  my  God"  (John  xx.  28). 
Our  faith,  then,  in  Jesus  as  the  Eternal  Son  of  God,  may 
stay  itself  not  only  on  the  unique  communion  with  God 
which  we  see  Him  enjoying,  but  on  His  own  belief  and 
claim  and  testimony. 

It  is  not  meant  that  there  are  no  other  grounds  for 
this  great  faith.  There  is  also  the  apostolic  teaching  to 
which  reference  was  made  in  the  beginning  of  this 
chapter.  And  perhaps  if  the  faith  of  most  Christian 
people  were  closely  inquired  into,  it  would  be  found  to 
rest  largely  on  their  own  experience.  They  have  felt 
the  change  and  blessing  which  have  reached  them 
through  communion  with  Jesus  to  be  nothing  short  of 
divine.  He  has  to  them,  as  it  has  been  expressed, 
"  the  value  of  God,"  and  they  cannot  give  Him  any 
lower  name  than  that  of  the  Eternal  Son.  We  have  been 
concerned,  however,  in  this  chapter  only  with  our  Lord's 
teaching  and  with  what  it,  by  itself,  conveys. 

Let  us  end  by  taking  account  of  the  value  to  us  of 
the  truths  about  the  person  of  Jesus,  which  we  find  con- 
tained in  each 'of  these  three  titles,  The  Son  of  God, 
The  Son  of  Man,  and  The  Christ. 

I.  The  Eternal  Sonship  of  Jesus  is  not  a  doctrine 
of  merely  intellectual  interest.  Who  Jesus  was — on  this 
depends  our  thought  of  God,  the  most  vital  thought  in 
our  moral  and  spiritual  life.  If  Jesus  be  the  Eternal 
Son,  then  how  grand  an  act  of  condescension  was  His 
being  sent  into  the  world  !  That  God  should  have  sent 
§ome  exalted  creature  as  His  messenger,  or  have  raised 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  HIMSELF         39 

up  a  man  of  supreme  goodness  and  gift,  would  indeed 
have  been  a  token  of  His  thought  for  men.  But  if  He 
sent  His  Son,  who  was  eternally  with  Him,  He  came  in 
a  true  sense  Himself.  In  Jesus  we  have  God,  as  it  were, 
translated  into  human  speech.  Jesus  is  the  express  image 
of  God,  and  in  His  suffering  and  death,  if  He  be  the  only 
begotten  Son,  we  feel  that  God  gives  Himself  for  us. 
He  does  the  utmost  that  Love  prompts,  or  is  able  to  do. 
We  have  final  assurance  that  the  world  in  which  we  find 
ourselves  is  governed  by  Love,  that  Love  is  creation's 
final  law.  In  spite  of  all  sins,  sorrows,  and  contrary 
appearances,  the  most  perfect  optimism  of  faith  is  vindi- 
cated. God's  name,  "  The  Father,"  is  justified  and 
sustained.  Our  creed  may  well  begin  with  the  words, 
"  I  believe  in  God  the  Father  Almighty." 

When  once  we  have  felt  what  the  Eternal  Sonship  of 
Jesus  implies,  we  cannot  part  with  it.  Without  it  God's 
love  seems  to  fall  greatly  below  His  power.  His  power, 
shown  in  the  visible  universe  of  suns  and  stars,  needs  some 
exhibition  of  His  love  equally  infinite  and  impressive,  if 
the  balance  of  the  glory  of  His  character  is  to  be  main- 
tained.  This  we  find  in  the  incarnation  of  the  Eternal  Son. 

2.  The  title,  the  Son  of  Man,  is  of  almost  equal 
value  to  us.  The  reality  of  the  manhood  of  Jesus,  when 
first  apprehended,  has  been  as  salvation  to  many,  so 
great  has  been  the  impulse  from  finding  Him  so  near 
us  in  kinship  and  experience.  What  comfort  it  has  been 
to  human  souls  to  pray  to  One  who  can  understand  us  so 
perfectly,  because  He  lived  and  felt  as  we  do !  In 
temptation  or  suffering  how  sustaining  has  been  the 
thought:  "Jesus  was  tempted  as  I  am;"  "Jesus 
suffered  as  I  suffer  ;"  "Jesus  learned  obedience  through 
the  things  which  He  suffered,  even  as  I  must  now  learn 
it."  And  as  we  think  of  the  wealth  of  being  now 
possessed  by  the  Son  of  Man,  and  of  the  glory  of  His  filial 
nearness  to  God,  all  human  burdens  seem  lightened,  and 
human  hopes  raised  higher.  The  whole  future  of  our 
race  is  brightened  by  the  belief  that  the  Son  of  Man 
belongs  to  the  race,  and  is  its  Head  and  Representative. 


40  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

3.  The  third  title,  the  Christ  (or  Anointed  One), 
has  also  to  us  still,  and  not  only  to  the  Jews  of  His  time, 
its  particular  value  and  significance.  It  assures  us  that 
Jesus  is  He  toward  whom  the  great  religious  history  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  indeed  of  the  old  world  con- 
verged. The  working  of  God  in  that  history  culminated 
in  Him.  And  now,  as  His  words  abide,  *'  All  authority 
hath  been  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  on  earth  "  (Matt. 
xxviii.  18),  we  believe  that  the  course  of  the  world's 
history  is  directed  towards,  and  will  finally  culminate  in. 
His  second  coming. 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  MAN  41 


CHAPTER   VI 

HIS  TEACHING   ABOUT   MAN 

I,  Bright  side  :  Worth  of  men  taught  by  Jesus'  words,  by 
His  deeds,  and  especially  by  His  Incarnation  itself. 
This  worth  rests  on  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  Contrast 
of  non- Christian  ideas  and  practice — 2,  Dark  side: 
Sin  in  man  is  (i)  of  awful  magnitude  and  guilt,  (2) 
universal,  (3)  original,  (4)  too  inward  for  himself  to 
cast  out — !NIan  not  wholly  evil — Are  all  men  children 
of  God  ? — In  knowledge,  moral  feeling,  and  freewill  all 
akin  to  God  ;  so  all  potentially  and  ideally  His  chil- 
dren— In  character  and  privileges  otherwise  ;  so  not  all 
really — Full  seriousness  of  Jesus'  teaching  completed 
by  His  doctrine  of  Satan — Tragedy  and  glory  of  man's 
state  ;  yet  (i)  all  redeemable,  and  (2)  redemption  suffi- 
cient for  all. 

T  T  may  well  seem  strange  to  us  that  man  is  so  difficult  a 
■'■  subject  of  inquiry  for  man  himself.  Mysteries  pre- 
sent themselves  in  our  own  nature  which  are  very  bafiling 
to  us.  They  have  been  subjects  of  discussion  for  the 
greatest  minds  since  serious  thought  began,  and  still,  in 
many  cases,  the  questions  that  have  been  raised  remain 
unsettled  ;  no  answers  have  been  agreed  upon. 

We  turn,  then,  to  Jesus,  of  whom  it  is  said  that  "  He 
knew  what  was  in  man,"  and  in  whose  teaching  we 
have  a  confidence  that  is  absolute.  We  ask,  What  is  the 
character  of  His  teaching  about  man  ?  Especially  we 
ask,^  Is  it  bright  or  dark  ?  High  or  mean  ?  Hopeful  or 
unhopeful  ? 

I.  The  teaching  of  Jesus  has  this  great  and  constant 
brightness,  that  it  always  conveys  to  us  a  surpassing  sense 


42  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

of  the  value  of  men — of  the  worth,  indeed,  of  every  in- 
dividual man.  Words  of  His  readily  occur  to  us  of  great 
weight  on  this  subject,  and  questions  He  asked  bearing 
on  it,  to  which  no  answer  was  expected  just  because  the 
truth  implied  was  too  great  and  evident  for  answer  to  be 
needed.  "Fear  not  ...  ye  are  of  more  value  than 
many  sparrows"  (Matt.  x.  31).  "What  shall  a  man  be 
profited  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world,  and  forfeit  his 
life  ?  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  life  ?  " 
(Matt.  xvi.  26).  "How  much  then  is  a  man  of  more 
value  than  a  sheep  ?  "  (Matt.  xii.  12). 

That  in  the  view  of  Jesus  the  least  important  human 
being  is  of  great  value,  according  to  the  divine  and  true 
reckoning,  comes  out  in  His  frequent  language  of  deep 
consideration  for  the  poor,  in  His  surprising  words  about 
children,  and  in  the  indignation  with  which  He  was  moved 
when  His  disciples  forbade  the  children  to  be  brought  to 
Him  for  His  blessing.  "Blessed  are  ye  poor  "  (Luke  vi. 
20).  "  The  poor  have  good  tidings  preached  to  them  " 
(Matt  xi.  5).  "  Whoso  shall  receive  one  such  little 
child  in  my  name  receiveth  me "  (Matt,  xviii.  5).  "I 
say  unto  you,  that  in  heaven  their  angels  do  always  be- 
hold the  face  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven  "  (Matt, 
xviii.  10).  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto  one  of  these 
my  brethren,  even  these  least,  ye  did  it  unto  me  "  (Matt. 
XXV.  40).  Perhaps  nowhere  in  His  teaching  is  the  value 
of  one  human  soul  in  God's  sight  more  strikingly  con- 
veyed than  when  he  speaks  the  parables  of  the  lost 
sheep,  the  lost  coin,  and  the  lost  son,  and  adds  the  words, 
*'  I  say  unto  you,  there  is  joy  in  the  presence  of  the  angels 
of  God  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth"  (Luke  xv.  10). 

Besides  express  words  of  Jesus  on  this  subject,  there  is 
even  greater  force  in  what  He  constantly  implies.  The 
weight  of  earnestness  with  which  all  His  teaching  is 
laden  implies  the  preciousness  of  those  He  ministered  to, 
and  of  all  to  whom  His  words  would  be  carried.  His 
earnestness  would  be  without  reason  if  the  life  of  man 
were  not  eventful  in  its  course,  and  most  eventful  in  its 
issue.     The  deep  compassion  also  of  Jesus  for  individual 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  MAN  43 

sufferers,  and  His  gracious  acts  of  healing,  show  the  same 
estimate  of  their  importance.  But  the  very  greatest 
indication  of  the  value  Jesus  saw  in  men  is  His  presence 
in  the  world  at  all — His  coming  into  it,  and  the  errand 
on  which  He  came.  *'  The  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  his  life  a 
ransom  for  many"  (Matt.  xx.  28).  That  the  Eternal 
Son  of  God  should  become  man  is  an  event  so  stupendous 
that  it  taxes  to  the  utmost  our  powers  of  belief,  and  that 
it  should  have  taken  place  for  the  sake  of  men  is  a  testi- 
mony to  their  value  in  God's  sight  that  is  beyond  all 
words.  By  the  incarnation,  as  by  nothing  else,  it  is 
brought  home  to  us  "that,  in  the  sight  of  God,  the 
stability  of  the  heavens  is  of  less  importance  than  the 
moral  growth  of  a  human  spirit."  ^ 

If  we  ask  here  what  gives  so  great  worth  to  manhood 
in  the  view  of  Jesus,  the  answer  is  that  the  foundation  of 
this,  as  of  all  His  teaching,  is  His  doctrine  of  God.  If 
God  be  **  The  Father,"  if  the  purpose  of  God  in  making 
men  was  that  they  should  be  His  children,  and  if  He 
has  endowed  them  for  so  great  a  place  in  His  universe, 
their  value  must  be  in  a  manner  infinite.  No  limits  can 
be  set  to  the  value  of  a  man  if  he  may  be  God's  child,  and 
may  contribute  to  the  beatitude  of  God  by  loving  Him 
as  a  child.  The  meanest  beggar,  when  thought  of  as 
capable  of  an  immortal  life  in  the  fellowship  of  God, 
is  clothed,  to  our  vision  of  faith,  with  more  than  royal 
dignity. 

We  shall  appreciate  better  the  element  in  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  with  which  we  are  now  dealing  if  we  put  it  in 
contrast  with  what  the  opponents  of  Christianity  have 
believed.  All  forms  of  atheism  carry  with  them  a  pain- 
ful loss  of  value  in  human  life.  If,  indeed,  there  be  no 
God,  man  is  a  creature  formed  without  love  or  thought, 
and  destined  soon  to  be  nothing.  He  is  (as  some  materi- 
alists have  scornfully  said)  "  a  digestive  tube."  With 
the  first  great  writer  against  Christianity — Celsus — the 
insignificance  of  man  is  a  favourite  theme.  He  scorns 
1  The  Foundations  0/ Belie/  {Pu  J.  Balfour),  p.  347. 


44  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

the  Christian  ideas  of  man's  importance.  And  in  our  day 
the  discoveries  of  astronomy,  which  show  the  earth  to  be 
so  small  a  speck  in  the  universe,  and  the  whole  duration 
of  man  upon  it  so  small  a  segment  of  time — these,  it  is 
urged,  make  man  too  insignificant  for  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  his  redemption  to  be  credible.  Even  a 
religion  like  Mohammedanism,  which  confesses  a  personal 
God  but  thinks  of  Him  only  as  Sovereign,  not  as  Father, 
weighs  down  the  human  soul  with  a  sense  of  its  insigni- 
ficance under  a  God  so  remote  and  absolute.  Christianity 
surpasses  all  other  forms  of  belief  in  inspiring  those  who 
receive  it  with  an  elevating  and  strengthening  sense  of 
the  infinite  worth  of  their  own  being  to  themselves  and 
to  God.  And  in  the  actual  world  of  affairs  and  the 
customary  ways  of  nations  we  find,  when  we  survey 
them,  that  everywhere  respect  for  human  life,  concern 
for  the  good  of  men,  interest  in  their  happiness,  and 
sympathy  for  their  sufferings,  rise  in  proportion  to  faith 
in  Jesus  and  familiarity  with  His  teaching.  It  is  in 
Christian  countries  that  hospitals  for  the  sick,  asylums 
for  the  insane,  refuges  for  the  tempted,  homes  for  orphan 
children,  and  all  the  various  energies  of  philanthropy 
originate  and  multiply.  It  is  in  Christian  countries  that 
the  lead  has  been  taken  in  the  suppression  of  the  slave 
trade,  the  abolition  of  slavery,  the  milder  and  more  just 
punishment  of  criminals,  and  the  endeavour  to  make 
punishment  reformatory.  In  the  one  case  of  a  pagan 
nation  beginning  to  rise  out  of  callous  disregard  of  human 
suffering — the  case  of  the  Japanese — we  find  that,  in 
organising  bands  of  relief  for  the  sick  of  both  sides  in 
war,  they  have  unconsciously  owned  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  to  be  the  great  spring  of  such  merciful  regard  for 
the  maimed  and  suffering,  by  enrolling  the  helpers  under 
the  flag  of  the  Red  Cross. 

2.  Thus  far,  the  teaching  of  Jesus  about  man  is  bright 
and  hopeful.  But  now  we  come  to  His  teaching  about 
human  sin,  and  this  is  undoubtedly  dark. 

(i)  The  whole  tone  of  Jesus  in  speaking  of  the  sin 
that  is  wrought  among  men  shows  that  He  reckoned  it 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  MAN  45 


to  be  of  awful  magnitude  arid  guilt.  The  judgment 
He  foretells  as  awaiting  sin  is  strict,  not  omitting  to 
take  account  even  of  an  idle  word.  It  is  also  sternly 
severe,  the  punishment  of  one  single  sin  which  He 
names  being  solemnly  declared  by  Him  to  be  worse  than 
for  the  man  to  have  a  great  millstone  hanged  about  his 
neck,  and  be  cast  into  the  depths  of  the  sea.  Nowhere 
do  we  get  such  an  impression  of  the  guilt  and  woe  of  sin 
as  from  the  holy  mind  of  Jesus,  revealed  in  His  life  and 
teaching. 

(2)  Jesus  also  speaks  of  sin  as  universal  in  men.  He 
assumes  this  rather  than  declares  it.  He  gives  as  His 
errand  into  the  world  of  men,  "The  Son  of  man  came 
to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost "  (Luke  xix.  lo). 
And  speaking  to  His  own  followers,  including  even  the 
men  whom  He  had  chosen  to  be  with  Himself,  He  took 
their  sin  for  granted.      "  If  ye,  being  evil,"  He  said. 

(3)  Further,  sin,  according  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
is  original  in  men.  Many  endeavours  have  been  made 
to  take  a  lighter  view  of  man's  condition  than  this.  In 
the  last  century  the  ideas  of  Rousseau  had  great  currency 
— that  men  are  born  good,  that  left  in  a  state  of  nature 
they  would  continue  good,  and  that  it  is  owing  to  outside 
influences,  from  corrupt  civilisation  and  the  artificial 
character  of  society,  that  they  go  astray  and  become  evil. 
Almost  nobody  now  would  take  such  a  view.  The 
thought  of  our  generation  is  far  more  serious  about  man's 
natural  state  than  this.  Certainly  the  view  of  Rousseau 
cannot  be  reconciled  with  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
"From  within,"  He  says,  "out  of  the  heart  of  men, 
e\al  thoughts  proceed,  fornications,  thefts,  murders, 
adulteries,  covetings,  wickednesses,  deceit,  lascivious- 
ness,  an  evil  eye,  railing,  pride,  foolishness  :  all  these 
evil  things  proceed  from  within,  and  defile  the  man " 
(Mark  vii.  21,  22).  This  is  a  terrible  list,  and  there  is 
no  doubt  that  Jesus  represents  these  as  natural  products 
of  the  human  heart.  They  come  "from  within."  They 
do  not  need  to  be  brought  from  without  by  example  or 
contagion.     Every  man  born  into  the  world  has  sin  of 


46  OUR  LORD'S   TEACHING 

himself.  The  teaching  of  Jesus  implies,  and  the  universal 
conscience,  rightly  appealed  to,  gives  assent,  that  sin  is 
original  in  man.  No  one  who  has  learnt  of  Jesus 
would  say,  **  Men  are  born  good." 

(4)  Sin  is  so  deep  in  us  that  we  cannot  of  ourselves 
cast  it  out,  or  rise  above  it.  For  this  we  need  something 
which  is  beyond  our  own  power, — a  new  birth  by  the 
Spirit  of  God.  "  Ye  must  be  born  anew,"  said  Jesus. 
"  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh  ;  that  which  is 
born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit"  (John  iii.  6,  7). 

So  sad  an  account  of  man's  sinful  state  has  been 
made  a  reproach  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  But  it  has 
commended  Christianity  to  many  of  the  best  and  wisest 
men.  A  missionary  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  much 
honoured  in  his  life  and  still  remembered,  owed  the 
restoration  of  his  faith  in  a  time  of  great  doubt  specially 
to  this  feature  of  our  Lord's  teaching.  As  he  read  in  the 
New  Testament,  the  conviction  came  powerfully  to  him 
— "  This  book  is  true.  I  find  here  a  true  account  of  my 
heart."  And  to  our  great  poet,  Robert  Browning,  the 
first  of  arguments  for  Christianity  was  that  it  rejected  the 
lie  of  men  being  born  good. 

I  still,  to  suppose  it  true,  for  my  part, 
See  reasons  and  reasons  ;  this  to  begin — 

'Tis  the  faith  that  launched,  point-blank,  her  dart 
At  the  head  of  a  lie — taught  original  sin. 

But,  serious  as  is  the  teaching  of  Jesus  about  sin  in 
man,  we  must  not  exaggerate  it.  He  did  not  say  that 
there  is  no  good  in  man.  Even  that  word  of  His  which 
we  quoted,  *'  If  ye  being  evil,"  shows  when  we  read  its 
context  that  He  did  not  reckon  men  wholly  evil.  He 
recognised  that  they  had  good  affections,  from  the  truth 
and  warmth  of  which  within  their  breasts  they  might  rise 
to  an  apprehension  of  the  affections  of  God  Himself. 
**  If  ye,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your 
children,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven  give  good  things  to  them  that  ask  him?"  (Matt. 
vii.  II).     He  recognises  here  that  they  had  a  real  com- 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  MAN  47 

munity  of  character  with  God.  Even  in  addressing 
publicans  and  sinners,  or  men  still  more  remote  in 
character  from  Himself — the  Pharisees — ^Jesus  took  for 
granted  that  their  moral  nature  could  be  appealed  to, 
that  their  hearts  might  be  rightly  affected  by  such  a  story 
as  that  of  the  prodigal  son,  and  that  they  were  not 
without  capacity  to  judge,  of  their  own  selves,  what  was 
right  (Luke  xii.  57). 

Thus  far  it  appears  that  the  teaching  of  Jesus  about 
man  is  in  part  bright,  in  part  dark.  Very  bright,  because 
of  the  great  preciousness  He  sees  in  every  man  ;  very 
dark,  because  of  the  sin  He  sees — original,  universal,  and 
terrible  in  depth  and  prevalence.  And  though  Jesus 
recognises  the  good  that  still  is  in  man.  He  regards  the 
sin  as  too  deep  and  intimate  for  him  to  rid  himself  of  it 
by  his  own  effort. 

This  double  account  of  man  is  reflected  in  the  differing 
answers  given  to  the  question.  Are  all  men  children  of 
God,  or  only  some  men  ?  This  seems  a  simple  question, 
about  which  the  followers  of  Jesus,  to  whom  His  teaching 
is  supreme  and  final,  should  be  agreed.  But  it  is  not  so. 
Some  answer  confidently,  Yes,  others  as  firmly,  No.  In 
order  to  decide  we  must  clearly  see  what  we  mean  by 
men  being  children  of  God.  The  first  necessity  in  settling 
dififerences  of  opinion  is  to  be  agreed  about  the  meaning 
of  our  words  and  phrases,  or  to  see  in  what  varying  senses 
we  use  them. 

Now  when  we  describe  men  as  "children  of  God," 
we  may  be  thinking  of  their  faculties^  or  we  may  be 
thinking  of  their  character^  or  we  may  be  thinking  of 
their  privileges.  All  men  have  faculties  or  capacities 
which  constitute  in  them  a  likeness  and  kinship  to  God 
Himself.  This  dignity  belongs  to  all  men.  We  speak 
now,  of  course,  of  their  spiritual  part,  the  soul.  Jesus 
(Matt.  X.  28)  recognises  two  parts  in  man,  a  material  and 
a  spiritual,  of  which  the  spiritual  is  the  more  important. 
In  that  spiritual  part  man  has  the  faculty  of  knowledge^ 
which,  however  small  it  be  in  comparison,  is  like  God's 
own  knowledge.     So  a  great  astronomer  spoke  of  him- 


48  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

self  in  his  scientific  discoveries  as  "  thinking  God's 
thoughts  after  Him."  Man  has  also  moral  sense  and 
moral  affection  ;  he  can  know  right  from  wrong,  and  is 
capable  of  loving  the  right — a  truly  God-like  faculty. 
So  a  great  philosopher  likens  it,  in  sublimity,  to  the  starry 
heavens  above  us.  And  one  thing  more  man  has  which 
completes  his  endowment  as  a  moral  personality,  akin  in 
nature  to  God, — he  \ia.%  freewill.  Without  this  he  could 
not  be  a  son  of  God.  Without  it  he  might  obey  God  as 
an  automaton,  or  as  a  slave  ;  but  to  love  and  obey  as  a 
son  he  must  be  free.  These  faculties  in  men  fit  them  to 
be  children  of  God  ;  and  in  the  fact  that  God  has  so 
endowed  them,  we  have  assurance  that  His  design  is  that 
they  should  be  His  children.  So  far  all  men  are  His 
children. 

But  if,  when  we  speak  of  men  as  children  of  God,  we 
are  thinking  of  their  character,  or  of  privileges  which 
they  have  which  go  with  a  certain  character,  if  we 
mean  the  great  privileges  of  children  of  God — a  place 
in  the  heavenly  Father's  household,  the  special  love  He 
has  to  children  who  love  Him,  and  the  eternal  inheritance 
which  He  has  prepared  for  His  children  —  if  these  are 
what  we  think  of,  we  cannot  say  that  all  men  are  children 
of  God.  Very  many  have  forfeited  them  by  turning  away 
from  God,  and  rebelling  against  Him.  If  we  must  call 
such  men  sons,  they  are  lost  sons.  The  name  of  son  in 
any  sense  of  privilege,  inheritance,  or  assured  hope  does 
not  belong  to  them.  It  belongs  only  to  those  who 
turn  to  God  in  that  freewill  which  they  received  for  this 
very  end,  that  they  might  give  to  God  the  trust  and 
obedience  of  sons.  So,  while  Jesus  speaks  constantly  of 
God  as  "The  Father,"  He  is  found  to  speak  sometimes 
as  if  only  some  among  men  were  God's  children : 
"  Blessed  are  the  peacemakers  :  for  they  shall  be  called 
sons  of  God."  '*  Love  your  enemies,  and  pray  for  them 
that  persecute  you  ;  that  ye  may  be  sons  of  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven"  (Matt.  v.  9,  44,  45).  We  may  say 
then,  in  accordance  with  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  that  all 
men  are  potentially  and  ideally  children  of  God  ;  this  is 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  MAN  49 

what  they  have  capacity  for,  and  are  meant  for  by  their 
Maker,  and  we  may  therefore  call  God  "  Father  of  all." 
But  not  all  men  are  children  of  God  really^  in  standing, 
character,  and  royal  heirship.  In  harmony  with  this  St. 
John  says,  **  As  many  as  received  him  (Jesus),  to  them 
gave  he  the  right  to  become  children  of  God  "  (John  i. 
12);  and  St.  Paul  says,  "As  many  as  are  led  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  these  are  the  sons  of  God  "  (Rom.  viii.  14). 
The  seriousness  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  about  man 
and  about  sin  does  not  come  fully  into  view  unless  we 
take  note  that,  in  the  Gospels,  Jesus  makes  us  aware  of  a 
kingdom  of  evil  in  the  background  of  human  life,  with  a 
personal  ruler  of  that  kingdom  and  servants  under  him. 
The  reality  of  this  personal  Evil  One  and  his  "demons," 
as  they  are  called  in  the  Gospels,  is  certainly  a  part  of 
the  teaching  of  Jesus.  It  stands  out  far  more  clearly  in 
His  discourses  than  in  the  Old  Testament,  as  is  evident 
from  the  number  and  character  of  the  names  by  which  our 
Lord  speaks  of  this  hostile  power — "Satan"  (Matt.  iv.  10; 
xii.  26;  Mark  iv.  15;  Lukexxii.  31;  Johnxiii.  27).  "The 
evil  one"  (Matt.  v.  37;  vi.  13;  xiii.  19,  38;  Johnxvii.  15). 
"  Beelzebub  the  prince  of  the  devils  "  or  demons  (Matt. 
xii.  27).  Man  is  spoken  of  by  Jesus  as  in  mysterious 
contact,  in  those  depths  of  his  being  from  which  his 
thoughts  come,  both  with  the  kingdom  of  light  and  with 
a  kingdom  of  darkness.  He  is  open  to  suggestions  and 
influences  from  God,  to  temptations  from  Satan.  "  Evil 
is  .  .  .  not  merely  a  characteristic  of  humanity  and  of 
the  moral  atmosphere  in  which  humanity  moves,  but  a 
supernatural  element  affecting  the  world  and  man  from 
the  outside.  Temptation  is  not  merely  a  reality,  address- 
ing man's  sense  and  soliciting  his  will,  but  it  is  a  living 
Power,  the  representative  of  a  kingdom  hostile  to  the 
Divine."!  There  is,  indeed,  nothing  in  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  like  the  Persian  doctrine  of  the  Wicked  One  having 
an  equal  share  with  the  Good  One  in  the  making  of  man  ; 
and  there  is  no  countenance  to  the  idea  once  so  rife,  of 
matter  being  essentially  evil,  and  the  body  of  man  the 
1  Tulloch,  Christian  Doctrine  of  Sin,  p.  106. 


so  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

hopeless  sphere  of  evil.  Nor  is  the  power  of  the  wicked 
one  put  on  the  same  level  with  that  of  God.  By  the 
finger  of  God  Jesus  casts  out  devils,  and  speaks  of  Him- 
self as  the  stronger,  who  is  to  bind  the  strong  (Satan) 
(Matt.  xii.  29).  But  that  the  power  of  the  tempter  is 
very  great  is  seen  in  the  temptations  of  Jesus  Himself, 
who  "suffered  being  tempted,"  and  in  the  title  He 
more  than  once  gives  to  Satan,  "  The  prince  of  this 
world  "  (John  xii.  3 1  ;  xiv.  30  ;  xvi.  11),  that  is  to  say, 
the  living  head  by  whom  human  society,  alienated  from 
God,  is  swayed,  and  with  whom  it  is  in  communion. 

Altogether  the  view  which  Jesus  gives  of  humanity  is 
one  in  which  tragedy  and  glory  are  mingled.  Guided  by 
Jesus,  we  think  of  man  as  great  in  capacity  and  nature, 
akin  in  these  to  God  Himself,  great  also  in  the  value  set 
on  him  by  God,  and  the  design  God  has  in  making  him  ; 
but  hanging  between  heaven  and  hell,  knowing  good 
and  responsive  to  it,  while  a  power  from  hell  —  for 
such  is  sin — has  a  hold  on  his  nature  which  he  can- 
not shake  off.  He  can  hear  God's  voice,  and  he  is 
open  to  suggestion  and  inspiration  from  God.  But  he 
is  also  open  to  suggestion  from  the  head  and  source  of 
evil,  Satan.  He  has  freewill ;  his  freedom  cannot  be 
overborne  by  any  force  of  the  tempter ;  it  is  constantly 
implied  that  he  need  not  sin  unless  he  himself  wills  to  do 
it.  But  in  this  freedom  is  involved  the  sadness  that  he 
can  resist  even  the  gracious  will  of  God  in  His  Son 
Jesus.  **  Ye  will  not  come  to  me,  that  ye  may  have  life  '* 
(John  v.  40).  **  How  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy 
children  together,  even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens 
under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not  !"  (Matt,  xxiii.  37). 
If  man  chooses  rightly  he  becomes,  in  the  full  and  glorious 
sense,  a  child  of  God.  If  by  choice  and  habit  he  yields 
himself  to  evil,  he  becomes  a  child  of  the  devil  (John  viii. 
42,  44). 

But  still  the  teaching  of  Jesus  in  regard  to  man  leans 
not  to  pessimism  and  hopelessness,  but  to  optimism  and 
hope.  This  on  account  of  two  things  :  (i)  His  view  of 
men   implies  that   all   are   redeemable,  capable  of  full 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  MAN  51 

deliverance  from  the  guilt  and  power  of  sin.  If  He 
teaches  that  that  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  and 
that  men  cannot  fit  themselves  for  the  kingdom  of  God, 
He  also  teaches  that  they  may  be  born  of  the  Spirit. 
That  solemn  word,  "Ye  must  be  bom  anew,"  implies 
this  joyful  one,  "  Ye  may  be  bom  anew  *' ;  and  to  what 
a  height  of  perfection  and  glory  men  may  be  brou^t 
appears  from  these  words  of  Jesus  in  communion  with  His 
Father — *'The  glory  which  thou  hast  given  me  I  have 
given  unto  them ;  that  they  maybe  one,  even  as  we  are  one; 
I  in  them,  and  thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be  perfected 
into  one"  (John  xvii.  22,  23).  (2)  Jesus  announces  a 
redemption  that  is  meant  for  all  and  sufficient  for  all. 
That  it  is  meant  for  all  is  implied  in  His  words,  **  Preach 
the  gospel  to  the  whole  creation  "  (Mark  xvi.  15).  That 
it  is  sufficient  for  all  is  implied  in  the  fact  of  Himself,  the 
Redeemer,  being  the  Eternal  Son  of  God,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit  whom  He  sends  being  also  divine.  The  scale  of 
God's  redemption — too  great  for  belief  by  those  who 
assume  the  insignificance  of  man — corresponds  to  the  full 
greatness  of  the  world's  need ;  shows  infinite  grace 
grappling  with  the  immensity  of  human  sin,  temptation, 
and  suffering ;  justifies  the  joy  of  the  mother  when  a 
child  is  born  into  the  world  (John  xvi.  21),  and  makes 
hope  prevail  in  our  thoughts  regarding  man. 


52  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 


CHAPTER  VII 

HIS  TEACHING   OF   RIGHTEOUSNESS 

I.  He  corrects  and  raises  the  ideas  of  His  time — i.  In  the 
direction  oi inwardness:  (i)  illustrated  from  His  dealing 
with  (a)  ceremonial,  {b)  the  Sabbath,  [c)  fastings,  and 
[d)  externals  in  worship  ;  (2)  true  righteousness  must 
be  in  thought  as  well  as  act ;  and  (3)  it  must  be  spon- 
taneous— 2.  In  the  direction  of  width .-  (i)  He  requires 
positive  service  to  men — (2)  magnanimity  in  conduct — 
and  (3)  gives  their  due  place  to  the  "feminine "  virtues. 
H.  He  makes  two  still  more  fundamental  changes, 
both  of  them  by  revealing  "  The  Father  "  :  (i)  ^  new 
ultimate  standard  of  righteousness ;  the  great  Christian 
rule,  * '  that  ye  may  be  sons  of  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven  " — Jesus'  own  life  the  model — (2)  A  new  motive 
for  righteousness — His  teaching  unequalled  and  final, 
but  poorly  realised  in  the  Church. 

I.  A  S  a  teacher  of  righteousness,  Jesus  did  not  need  to 
•^*'  begin  at  the  very  beginning.  Wherever  He  had 
appeared  in  the  world,  though  it  had  been  among  people 
far  lower  than  the  Jews,  He  would  have  found  that  they 
already  had  some  ideas  of  right  and  wrong.  The  Jews, 
to  whom  He  did  come,  and  among  whom  He  preached, 
had  been  long  disciplined  by  God  and  taught  by  His 
prophets  from  Moses  downwards.  They  had  those  Ten 
Commandments  which  we  still  use  as  heads  of  duty  to 
God  and  man.  They  had  many  other  rules  of  life  and 
laws  of  worship  which  we  can  read  in  the  Old  Testament. 
And  they  had,  besides,  a  great  system  of  traditions  about 
conduct,  whose  purpose  was  to  fence  round  these  divinely- 


HIS  TEACHING  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS      53 

given  rules,  and  secure  them  against  transgression. 
Jesus  had  this  whole  system  to  start  from — a  system 
partly  of  God  and  partly  of  man,  in  its  nature  partly 
permanent,  partly  temporary.  His  work,  then,  as  a 
teacher  of  righteousness,  in  the  time  and  country  in 
which  He  appeared,  was  to  correct  and  raise  the  ideas 
of  righteousness  which  He  found  prevailing.  He 
exhibits  the  true  righteousness — that  of  the  kingdom  of 
God — largely  by  setting  it  in  contrast  with  the  righteous- 
ness taught  and  practised  among  the  Jews  of  His  day. 

The  correction  He  makes  of  that  righteousness  shows 
itself  in  two  main  directions — in  the  direction  of  inward- 
ness and  in  the  direction  of  width.  As  we  listen  to  His 
teaching  we  perceive  that  the  righteousness  of  the  king- 
dom of  God  is  not  external,  like  that  of  the  Jews,  but 
inward  or  spiritual,  not  narrow  like  theirs,  but  wide. 

I.  We  shall  illustrate  first  this  inwardness. 

(l)  {a)  One  element  in  the  religion  of  the  Jews 
which  we  nowadays  have  difficulty  in  appreciating  was 
their  ceremonial  righteousness.  We  have  to  go  to  the 
East  among  Mohammedans  or  Hindoos  to  find  parallels 
to  it  in  our  time.  There  we  discover  that  it  is  against 
the  religion  of  a  Hindoo  to  eat  cow's  flesh,  and  that  for 
a  Brahmin  the  touch  of  a  man  of  low  caste — even  his 
shadow  falling  on  the  Brahmin's  food  —  is  defiling.  So 
among  the  Jews  it  was  against  the  law  to  eat  the  flesh  of 
swine,  of  hares,  and  of  many  other  animals,  and  a  man 
became  religiously  unclean  if  he  touched  a  dead  body, 
and  in  other  physical  ways.  The  Law  of  Moses  so  en- 
joined ;  we  believe  therefore  that  there  was  a  divine 
purpose  in  it  for  the  time  then  present.  But  there  is  a 
great  danger  which  accompanies  all  ceremonial  religion. 
Wherever  ceremonial  righteousness  has  a  place  in  religion 
side  by  side  with  true  moral  righteousness,  the  former  is 
apt  to  get  the  chief  place.  It  is  a  far  easier  way  of 
being  religious  than  to  do  right  and  to  be  good.  There  is 
thus  a  tendency  to  emphasise  the  ceremonial  and  neglect 
the  moral  element  in  religion,  and  you  come  in  time  to  the 
monstrous  result  of  people  who  are  very  religious  and  at 


54  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

the  same  time  utterly  immoral.  So  it  is  now  among 
Hindoos,  many  of  whom  have  far  more  sense  of  sin  in 
eating  cow's  flesh  than  in  lying. 

The  Jews  of  our  Lord's  time  had  much  of  this  evil 
leaven,  especially  the  Pharisees,  their  religious  leaders. 
Extortion,  excess,  and  cruel  neglect  of  parents,  were 
compatible  in  them  with  punctilious  religious  strictness 
(see  Mark  vii.  9-13  ;  Matt,  xxiii.  23-25). 

Jesus  did  away  at  a  single  sweep  with  all  this  cere- 
monial righteousness.  Even  what  had  a  place  in  the 
Law  of  Moses  He  abrogated.  He  did  so  with  a  plain 
appeal  to  the  moral  sense  and  common  sense  of  His 
hearers.  He  called  them  to  consider  that  meats  could 
not  defile  a  man  morally,  because  they  do  not  go  into 
his  hearty  but  into  his  belly ;  they  do  not  reach  his 
spirity  but  only  his  body.  So  Jesus,  in  one  word  and 
appeal,  "  made  all  meats  clean."  He  carried  the  thoughts 
of  His  hearers  past  this  outward  religion  to  what  was 
truly  moral,  and  to  what  was  inward.  He  warned  them 
of  the  great  source  of  real  defilement,  the  heart  of  man 
itself.  "  From  within,  out  of  the  heart  of  men,  evil 
thoughts  proceed  ....  these  evil  things  proceed  from 
within,  and  defile  the  man"  (Mark  vii.  21). 

There  are  indications  that  Jesus  Himself  conformed 
to  the  ceremonial  law,  as  being  a  Jew  and  living  under 
the  Old  Testament  dispensation,  but  His  teaching  in- 
volved the  freeing  of  His  Church  and  kingdom  from  all 
ceremonial  bonds. 

{b)  A  similar  change  He  made  in  regard  to  rules 
for  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath.  Strict  abstinence 
from  labour  on  the  Sabbath  had  come  to  be  regarded 
among  the  Jews  as  a  thing  in  itself  pleasing  to  God ; 
and  this  strictness  was  systematised  by  rules,  many  of 
which  were  foolish,  as  that  a  tailor  might  not  carry  his 
needle  about  his  person  on  the  Sabbath,  because  this 
would  be  bearing  a  burden,  and  a  man  might  not  wear 
on  that  day  sandals  weighted  with  nails.  The  Jewish 
teachers  thus  dealt  with  the  Sabbath  as  if  it  were  an  end 
in  itself,  and  as  if  man  had    been  made  for  Sabbath- 


HIS  TEACHING  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS      55 

keeping,  as  he  had  been  made  for  purity,  truth,  devotion 
to  God,  mercy,  and  other  graces  of  character  inherently 
noble.  But  Jesus  taught  that  "The  sabbath  was  made 
for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  sabbath  "  (Mark  ii.  27).  Its 
observances  were  not  ends  in  themselves,  but  means  to 
an  end — that  end  being  man's  true  good  in  body  and 
spirit.  The  whole  system  of  Pharisaic  rules  thereby  fell 
to  the  level  of  ceremonial,  with  no  value  in  their  punc- 
tilious observance.  Jesus  justified  His  disciples'  neglect 
of  them  by  the  example  of  David,  who  disregarded  the 
ceremonial  rule  against  himself  and  his  men  eating  the 
shewbread,  which  was  only  for  the  priests.  In  appealing 
to  this,  and  in  quoting  the  prophet's  words,  *'  I  desire 
mercy  and  not  sacrifice,"  Jesus  showed  the  Law,  fully 
understood,  to  be  on  His  side,  and  that  He  was  not  de- 
stroying, but  fulfilling  it,  and  bringing  out  its  latent  ideal. 
The  Sabbath  being  made  for  man.  He  claimed,  as  the 
Son  of  Man — the  Head  of  humanity, — to  be  Lord  of  it, 
that  is  to  say,  to  make  His  own  use  of  it,  and  direct  His 
Church  in  using  it.  He  refused  to  be  hindered  from 
healing  on  that  day,  saying,  *'  It  is  lawful  to  do  good  on 
the  sabbath  day"  (Matt  xii.  I2).  The  Christian  con- 
science, accordingly,  has  been  set  free  by  Jesus  from 
bondage  to  formal  rules  about  the  Sabbath ;  and  in  the 
use  of  this  liberty  Christian  men  and  the  Christian 
Church  will  lay  upon  themselves  just  such  rule  and 
ordering  of  the  day  as  shall  best  turn  to  account  this 
great  means  and  opportunity  for  man's  good. 

{c)  Regular  fastings  on  set  days  or  at  set  seasons  are 
also  treated  by  Jesus  as  of  the  nature  of  ceremonial,  and 
as  no  part  of  the  righteousness  of  His  kingdom  (see  Mark 
ii.  18-22).  Abstinence  from  food  and  from  the  pleasures 
of  life  He  does  anticipate  as  a  natural  consequence  of 
religious  sorrow,  but  He  does  not  command  it.  It 
must  be  the  expression  of  inward  feeling.  His  disciples 
did  not  fast  while  they  had  the  joy  of  His  company,  and 
in  the  report  of  a  saying  of  His  in  our  authorised  version, 
"This  kind  can  come  forth  by  nothing,  but  by  prayer 
and  fasting"  (Mark  ix.  29),  the  last  two  words  are  an 


S6  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

interpolation.  Fasting  fixed  for  recurring  day  or 
season  is  inconsistent  with  His  kingdom,  because  it  may 
be  contrary  to  inward  truth.  "  Can  the  sons  of  the 
bride-chamber  fast,  while  the  bridegroom  is  with  them  ? 
As  long  as  they  have  the  bridegroom  with  them,  they 
cannot  fast"  (Mark  ii.  19).  In  the  Christian  Church, 
which  enjoys  by  His  Spirit  so  much  of  the  presence  of  the 
Bridegroom,  fasting  cannot  have  the  place  it  had  among 
the  Jews.  The  Christian  conscience  has  liberty  here 
also,  and  the  Christian  man  is  free  to  fast  or  not  to  fast, 
to  deny  himself  or  to  use  what  is  pleasant  in  life,  accord- 
ing as  he  is  prompted  by  inward  feeling  and  by  experience 
of  inward  profit. 

{d)  The  great  principle  of  spirituality  and  inwardness 
which  underlies  the  changes  now  mentioned  has  sublime 
expression,  in  regard  to  worship,  in  the  word  which 
Jesus  spoke  at  the  well  of  Samaria — *'  God  is  a  Spirit : 
and  they  that  worship  him  must  worship  in  spirit  and 
truth  "  (John  iv.  24).  **  Such  doth  the  Father  seek  to 
be  his  worshippers"  (iv.  23).  By  this  word  Jesus 
taught  that  the  acceptance  of  worship  by  the  Father 
has  no  dependence  on  holy  place  or  prescribed  ceremony, 
or  priestly  mediation,  or  anything  external  to  the  inward 
truth  of  the  worshipper — his  true  thought  of  God,  and 
his  sincerity  in  drawing  near  to  Him. 

(2)  Another  advance  of  great  importance  in  inwardness 
of  moral  teaching  has  prominence  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.  In  that  "  Manifesto  of  His  kingdom,"  we  find 
Jesus  dealing  with  some  of  the  great  abiding  moral  rules 
of  life  of  which  the  Ten  Commandments  are  a  summary, 
— with  those  particularly  which  we  reckon  as  of  the 
second  table,  containing  our  duty  to  men.  And  here, 
while  the  Jews  thought  only  of  these  being  obeyed  in 
deed,  Jesus  required  that  they  be  obeyed  in  thought.  So 
He  carried  righteousness  inwards.  He  quoted  the  sixth 
commandment,  and,  whereas  it  forbade  murder,  the  act, 
He  forbade  hatred,  the  thought.  He  quoted  the  seventh 
commandment,  and,  whereas  it  forbade  adultery,  He  for- 
bade the  lustful  look.     He  quoted  the  words,  '*  Thou  shalt 


HIS  TEACHING  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS       $7 

not  forswear  thyself" — a  form  of  the  ninth  commandment 
— and  required  in  His  kingdom  that  inward  truthfulness 
of  character  which  expresses  itself,  without  need  of  oaths, 
in  plain  simplicity  of  speech.  Passing  on  to  almsgiving, 
prayer,  and  fasting,  He  made  the  one  great  test  of  their 
value  to  be  their  inward  motive.  If  they  were  done  to 
be  seen  of  men,  if  the  thoughts  in  them  were  not  true  to 
God,  they  were  worthless. 

(3)  Yet  another  element  of  inwardness  in  the  moral 
teaching  of  Jesus  is  too  important  to  be  left  unnoticed. 
The  righteousness  of  the  kingdom  of  God  which  He 
preached  was  a  spontaneous  a.nd/ree  righteousness.  No 
righteousness  is  up  to  the  level  of  that  kingdom  if  it  be 
done  from  fear,  or  even  if  it  be  done  only  from  a  sense 
of  duty.  A  man  is  not  at  the  height  of  the  righteous- 
ness which  Jesus  pointed  to,  and  exemplified  in  Himself, 
unless  he  does  what  is  right  of  his  own  liking,  unless  he 
does  it  because  he  himself  chooses  it  and  prefers  it,  and 
his  affection  goes  with  it.  So  inward  is  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  kingdom,  it  cannot  be  overlaid  upon  a  spirit 
different  from  it  ;  it  is  the  natural  outgoing  of  a  spirit 
that  is  good.  "The  good  man  out  of  his  good  treasure 
bringeth  forth  good  things :  and  the  evil  man  out  of 
his  evil  treasure  bringeth  forth  evil  things"  (Matt.  xii. 
35).  **  Make  the  tree  good,  and  its  fruit  good  "  (Matt, 
xii.  33).  "Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs 
of  thistles?"  (Matt.  vii.  16).  So  the  ethical  teaching 
of  Jesus  in  St.  Matthew  is  in  organic  unity  with  the 
mystical  teaching  in  St.  John.  The  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  requires  the  new  birth  spoken  of  to  Nicodemus, 
and  the  kingdom  of  God  brought  in  by  Jesus  is  the 
beginning  of  the  time  of  which  our  poet  Wordsworth 
rejoiced  to  think,  when  liking  and  duty  will  be  one, 
when  love  and  joy  will  of  themselves  be  sufficient 
guides  of  conduct, — 

Serene  will  be  our  days  and  bright, 
And  happy  will  our  nature  be. 

When  love  is  an  unerring  light, 
And  joy  its  own  seciu-ity. 


58  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

2.  We  shall  illustrate  next  the  advance  Jesus  made 
on  the  Jewish  idea  of  righteousness  by  zvidening  it. 

(i)  While  the  main  idea  of  the  Jews  in  regard  to  right- 
eousness was  of  not  doing  evil  and  not  transgressing  the 
Law, — for  the  language  of  the  Law  usually  was,  "  Thou 
shalt  not " — the  righteousness  taught  by  Jesus,  both  in 
word  and  example,  was  one  of  active  well-doing.  His  own 
life  was  wholly  one  of  beneficence.  He  went  about  doing 
good.  He  said  that  He  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto, 
but  to  minister,  and  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many. 
In  His  farewell  intercourse  with  His  disciples  He  washed 
their  feet — type  of  all  humblest  ministries — and  then  He 
said,  "  I  have  given  you  an  example,  that  ye  also  should 
do  as  I  have  done  to  you"  (John  xiii.  15).  He  made 
greatness  in  the  new  kingdom  to  be  determined  by 
service.  "  Whosoever  would  become  great  among  you 
shall  be  your  minister  ;  and  whosoever  would  be  first 
among  you  shall  be  your  servant"  (Matt.  xx.  27).  The 
great  sin,  as  foreshown  in  His  vision  of  judgment,  was 
the  good  that  had  been  left  undone — **  Inasmuch  as  ye 
did  it  not,"  or  the  talent  that  had  been  hid  useless  in 
the  napkin. 

(2)  Another  widening  and  elevating  principle  of  con- 
duct is  contained  in  His  words,  "What  do  ye  more  than 
others?"  "If  ye  love  them  that  love  you,  what  reward 
have  ye  ?  do  not  even  the  publicans  the  same  ?  And 
if  ye  salute  your  brethren  only,  what  do  ye  more  than 
others  ?  do  not  even  the  Gentiles  the  same  ?  "  (Matt.  v. 
46,  47).  Jesus  calls  on  His  disciples  not  to  be  content 
with  the  customary  ways  that  are  approved  in  the  world. 
They  are  to  be  pioneers  of  that  moral  advance  which 
the  world  stands  in  need  of  in  every  department  of  life — 
in  trade,  in  politics,  in  labour,  in  social  intercourse. 
Especially  the  range  of  well-doing  is  not  to  be  kept,  as 
it  was  among  Jews,  within  the  bounds  of  sect  or  party. 
Nowhere  was  the  narrowness  of  the  Jew  more  conspicu- 
ous than  in  the  limitations  of  his  exclusive  and  sectarian 
patriotism.  "Love  thy  neighbour"  meant  to  him  only 
that  he  should  love  some  other  Jew ;  but  Jesus  extended 


HIS  TEACHING  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS       59 

the  word  "neighbour"  till  it  included  the  Samaritan, 
and  the  enemy  (Luke  x.  37).  And  when  we  take  this 
principle,  •*  What  do  ye  more  than  others?"  along  with 
those  most  stimulating  precepts  which  we  dealt  with  as 
examples  of  paradox  in  our  Lord's  teaching  (Matt.  v. 
39-42),  we  see  that  the  morality  He  calls  for  is  of  the 
noble  kind  we  describe  as  heroic.  An  element  of 
heroism  and  magnanimity  He  expects  even  in  the 
common  life  of  His  disciples,  in  their  salutings,  lendings, 
compliances,  and  forbearings. 

(3)  One  other  instance  of  widening.  A  whole  class  of 
virtues  first  came  into  their  due  place  in  the  teaching  of 
Jesus,  those  which  have  been  called  \.\itfe?ninine  virtues, 
the  virtues  of  gentleness  and  patience.  The  stronger 
virtues — those  of  courage,  truth,  and  rectitude — had  long 
been  held  in  honour,  and  had  found  among  the  Romans  and 
other  nations  illustrious  exemplars.  But  only  since  Jesus 
came  and  taught  among  men,  by  word  and  by  example, 
have  virtues  of  the  gentler  class  been  fully  owned  as 
virtues.  Before  His  time  they  were  often  despised ;  now 
they  are  set  highest.  Patience  under  injury,  forgiveness 
of  enemies,  charity  of  judgment,  meekness  and  personal 
humility,  pity  and  sympathy  with  the  weak — these  are 
now  owned  as  the  highest  tokens  of  character  and  the 
most  worthy  of  admiration.  The  thought  of  modern 
times  differs  radically  here  from  that  of  ancient  times. 
And  the  change  dates  from  Jesus.  There  was  before 
Him,  an  old  world  of  thought ;  since  Him,  a  new 
world.  He  effected  this  partly  by  His  teaching.  Putting 
foremost  this  new  feature  of  His  righteousness,  the 
great  sermon  began — "Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit; 
for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven "  ;  "  Blessed  are 
the  meek";  "Blessed  are  the  merciful";  "Blessed 
are  they  that  have  been  persecuted  for  righteousness' 
sake."  But  still  more  by  His  example  did  Jesus  change 
the  ideal  of  righteousness,  and  widen  the  conception  of 
it.  He  was  Himself  meek  and  lowly  in  heart.  He 
was,  above  all  else,  the  great,  patient,  loving  Sufferer. 
His  death  on  the  Cross  it  is  which  has  placed  a  gulf 


6o  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

so  wide  between  our  modern  ideal  of  what  is  good  and 
admirable  and  the  ancient  ideal  of  it  that  we  can  never 
return  back.  Our  modern  life,  our  modern  art,  our 
modern  social  order,  all  feel  the  revolution  which  Jesus 
made  by  this  great  widening  of  the  idea  of  righteousness. 

II.  But  the  change  which  Jesus  made  cannot  be  fully 
seen  by  reckoning  up  even  those  great  corrections  on  the 
Jewish  or  Roman  rules  and  ideas  of  His  time.  His 
work  in  the  teaching  of  righteousness  was  more  funda- 
mental still  and  we  shall  set  it  forth  under  two  heads  : 
( I )  He  gave  men  a  new  ultimate  standard  of  righteousfiess, 
and  (2)  He  gave  them  a  new  motive  for  being  righteous. 
He  did  these  both  at  once  in  giving  the  new  and 
higher  idea  of  God  which  He  expressed  in  the  name  of 
♦'  Father." 

(i)  Let  us  first  see  how  this  is  so  in  regard  to  the 
standard  of  righteousness.  Our  ultimate  standard  of 
right  must  be  the  character  of  God.  With  a  new  and 
higher  thought  of  God,  our  sense  of  duty  is  also  new 
and  higher,  for  we  know  that  it  is  God  with  whom  we 
have  to  do ;  and  the  human  conscience  has  this  divine 
grandeur  in  it  that  it  cannot  excuse  any  man  from  aiming 
at  the  highest  which  he  knows.  So,  from  the  time  when 
Jesus  spoke  of  God  as  "  The  Father,"  and  showed  the 
Father  in  the  mirror  of  His  own  life  as  a  Son,  all  the  moral 
ideas  of  men  began  to  be  raised.  This  is  the  root  of  all 
the  changes  in  the  moral  standard  which  we  have  already 
mentioned.  From  the  moment  God  is  known  as  "  The 
Father  "  the  duty  of  man  is  to  be  a  true  son  of  God — to 
trust  Him  as  a  son  should,  and  be  like  Him  morally  as  a 
son  should.  '*  That  ye  may  be  sons  of  your  Father  which 
is  in  heaven"  (Matt.  v.  45)  :  in  these  words  Jesus  gave 
His  disciples  the  great  Christian  rule  of  life. 

What  does  this  rule  imply  ?  The  best  answer  to  this 
question  is  the  life  of  Jesus  Himself.  He  is  the  perfect 
example  of  the  true  son  of  God  living  in  the  world.  He 
is  the  visible  Christian  ideal.  His  life  and  death,  more 
even  than  His  words,  are  the  final  Christian  law  of 
righteousness,  answering  the  question  how  man  is  to  be 


HIS   TEACHING   OP  RIGHTEOUSNESS      6x 

God-like,  and  live  as  a  son  of  God.  From  this  ideal  we 
learn  that  the  central  requirements  in  our  duly  toward 
God  are  filial  trust  and  filial  obedience.  The  trust  is 
illustrated  by  Jesus'  own  dependence  on  His  Father 
(John  xvi.  32  ;  Matt.  xxvi.  53),  and  encouraged  by  His 
many  comfortable  words  about  our  heavenly  Father's 
care  (Matt.  vi.  25-33  >  ^'  I9>  20,  28-31).  The  obedience 
is  illustrated  by  Jesus'  own  filial  zeal,  "  My  meat  is  to 
do  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me  "  (John  iv.  34) ;  and  by 
His  filial  resignation,  "Yea,  Father,  for  so  it  was  well- 
pleasing  in  thy  sight"  (Matt.  xi.  26) ;  "The  cup  which 
the  Father  hath  given  me,  shall  I  not  drink  it?"  (John 
xviii.  II).  From  the  same  ideal  of  Jesus'  life,  our  duty 
to  men  may  be  summed  up  in  one  word.  Love — not  any 
soft  sentiment  of  love,  but  love  such  as  God's  own,  and 
such  as  Jesus  manifested  in  giving  Himself  for  men's 
redemption,  in  sympathy,  ministry,  self-denial,  and  the 
Cross.  Jesus,  in  a  sublime  manner,  filled  the  part  of  a 
son  of  God  among  men  His  brethren,  and  His  course  is  the 
supreme  example  of  true  righteousness  to  all  who  believe 
in  Him.  In  virtue  of  His  life  and  words  together  He  is 
the  Light  of  the  world  (John  viii.  12) ;  and  He  so  ex- 
pects His  followers  to  be  like  Himself,  and  to  act  for 
Him  and  for  His  Father,  that  He  says  to  them,  "  Ye 
are  the  light  of  the  world.  .  .  .  Let  your  light  shine 
before  men,  that  they  may  see  your  good  works,  and 
glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven"  (Matt.  v.  14, 
16).  "As  the  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I 
you"  (John  xx.  21). 

(2)  Let  us  now  see  how  the  revelation  of  God  as 
"The  Father"  gives  a  new  motive  for  righteousness, 
and  how  it  is  that  while  Christianity  exhibits  a  far  higher 
standard  of  what  is  right,  it  yet  makes  attainment  more 
possible.  If  God  is  known  as  "  The  Father,"  bestowing 
His  forgiveness  on  sinners,  bestowing  His  love  on  the 
undeserving,  blessing  them  with  the  rank  and  privileges 
of  His  own  children,  the  impact  of  so  great  love  and 
mercy  on  the  soul  inevitably  calls  forth  a  great  answering 
love,  which  makes  obedience  to  God  a  joy.     To  trust 


62  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

Him  and  do  the  things  which  please  Him  become 
passions  of  the  soul.  All  the  former  inducements  to 
righteousness  remain,  such  as  a  sense  of  the  claim  and 
beauty  and  reward  of  righteousness,  but  there  is  added  a 
heart  won  to  the  side  of  righteousness,  the  love  of  God 
being  shed  abroad  in  it  by  the  Holy  Spirit  given  to  it. 
And  not  only  does  the  impact  of  God's  love  draw  forth  an 
answering  love  to  Himself,  but  a  natural  instinct  requires 
us  to  pass  on  that  love  to  our  fellowmen.  If  we  believe 
that  God  loves  us,  we  cannot  but  feel  moved  to  love  and 
serve  our  brother.  So  the  belief,  which  we  owe  to  Jesus, 
of  God  the  Father  over  all,  acting  as  a  moral  magnet  of 
infinite  power,  makes  righteousness  spontaneous ;  for  by 
that  belief,  when  it  is  received,  love  is  compelled,  and 
love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law,  according  to  that  summary 
of  righteousness  which  Jesus  gave  in  two  Old  Testament 
texts,  **  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,"  and 
"Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself"  (Matt, 
xxii.  37,  39)- 

No  teaching  on  righteousness  equals  that  of  Jesus. 
The  teaching  of  the  Old  Testament  prophets  and 
psalmists  is  indeed  often  very  high.  But  often,  also,  it 
drops,  as  in  tones  of  complaint,  or  of  loss  of  trust  in  God, 
and  in  prayers  for  vengeance  on  enemies.  Jesus'  teaching 
moves  constantly  and  calmly  at  an  elevation  reached  by 
the  prophets  only  at  times.  Still  more  does  it  surpass  the 
best  moral  teaching  among  pagan  nations,  which  often 
reaches  high  truths,  but  is  always  partial  and  unequal. 
And  there  is  this  other  supremacy  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
that  His  ideal  or  standard  of  righteousness  is  not  more 
unique  than  is  the  *'  Moral  Dynamic,"  or  motive  power 
that  He  supplies,  by  which  the  standard  becomes 
attainable. 

His  teaching  on  righteousness  is,  we  also  claim,  a  final 
teaching.  It  perfectly  satisfies  the  conscience  and  aspira- 
tion of  man,  and  will  never  need  to  be  improved  upon. 
As  we  read  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  or  in  the  fare- 
well discourses  in  St.  John,  we  feel  that  if  men  so  lived 


HIS  TEACHING  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS       63 

in  act  and  spirit,  they  would  be  in  a  perfect  state  ;  all 
the  blessedness  of  right-doing  would  be  theirs.  For  a 
higher  ideal  of  righteousness  than  that  of  Jesus  we  should 
require  to  find  a  higher  revelation  of  God  than  He  has 
made,  and  a  higher  example  than  that  of  His  own  life 
and  death. 

But  though  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  final  as  an  ideal 
of  life,  and  though  we  have  access  in  Him  to  motive 
power  so  adequate,  it  is  a  reason  for  great  humiliation  to 
the  Christian  Church  that  His  ideal  has  been  so  slowly, 
and  is  even  still  so  partially,  realised  in  the  Church  itself 
and  in  the  society  which  is  influenced  by  the  Churcli. 
The  moral  advances  of  Christian  civilisation  have  been 
slow.  Evils  have  been  long  tolerated  which  were  ulti- 
mately seen  to  be  unworthy  of  followers  of  Jesus.  The 
Church  is  not,  as  it  should  be,  a  shining  testimony  to 
the  possibility  of  purity  in  an  impure  world,  single- 
mindedness  in  a  selfish  and  vain-glorious  world,  truth  in 
a  world  of  concealments,  love  in  a  world  still  so  far 
from  brotherly.  And  one  of  the  best  signs  of  the 
Christian  Church  at  the  present  day  is  that  it  seems  to 
be  burdened  with  regret  that  the  righteousness  of  Christ's 
kingdom  is  so  little  realised  in  the  society  of  Christian 
countries  even  now.  There  is  rising  before  Christian 
minds  a  vision  of  society  penetrated  and  moved  far  more 
than  at  present  by  the  love  which  comes  of  that  sense  of 
the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man, 
which  we  owe  to  Jesus. 


64  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   CONDITIONS   OF   ENTRANCE    INTO   THE   KINGDOM 
OF  GOD 

I.  The  terms  of  entrance  easy — Salvation  is  a  free  gift — 
The  one  qualification,  readiness  to  receive  it — Faith 
in  Jesus  gives  this  readiness,  and  so  faith  saves.  2. 
The  terms  also  difficult — Receiving  salvation  involves 
a  great  renunciation — This  described  as  (i)  repentance, 
(2)  hating  kindred  and  fife,  (3)  cross-bearing,  (4)  re- 
nouncing all  possessions — Faith  to  do  this  is  beyond 
power  of  men  and  needs  the  power  of  God — Salvation 
is  therefore  a  divine  mystery — It  requires  a  new  birth — 
Objection  to  mystery  in  salvation,  and  answer — The 
need  of  divine  grace  no  bar  to  salvation. 

T^^E  shall  in  this  chapter  apply  ourselves  to  study 
*  ^  what  Jesus  has  taught  in  regard  to  the  conditions 
of  entrance  into  the  kingdom  of  God — in  other  words, 
the  terms  of  salvation  for  individual  souls.  We  shall  try 
to  bring  together  His  various  answers  to  the  questions, 
"What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?"  "What  shall  I  do  that 
I  may  have  eternal  life  ?  "  and  see  what  is  their  full  result ; 
for  no  one  saying  of  His  gives  the  whole  truth  :  often, 
indeed,  what  He  says  in  one  place  may  seem  to  contradict 
what  He  says  in  another.  Sometimes,  for  example, 
admission  into  the  kingdom  of  God  appears  to  be  the 
easiest  thing  in  the  world  ;  at  other  times  nothing  seems, 
from  what  He  says,  to  be  more  difficult. 

I.  One  thing  stands  out  with  plainness  and  certainty 
in  our  Lord's  teaching,  and  our  first  step  will  be  to  set 
it  down,  namely,  that  the  highest  good,  the  kingdom  o! 
heaven,  is  a  free  gift  of  God.     Salvation  is  of  grace, 


ENTRANCE  INTO  KINGDOM  OF  GOD       65 

that  is  to  say,  gratis.  This  fact  about  it  is  in  the  strongest 
opposition  to  the  idea  of  our  Lord's  contemporaries  the 
Pharisees — an  idea  more  or  less  congenial,  perhaps,  to 
every  human  breast — that  salvation  and  eternal  life  are 
to  be  earned  by  righteous  conduct,  and  that,  in  so  far  as 
they  are  gifts  of  God,  they  are  bestowed  first  on  the  most 
righteous.  Utterly  opposed  to  this  is  the  fundamental 
truth  in  Jesus'  teaching,  that  the  kingdom  of  God,  with 
eternal  life  which  is  the  central  blessing  of  the  kingdom,  is 
of  grace.  Jesus  says  to  His  disciples,  "Freely  ye  received, 
freely  give  "  (Matt.  x.  8) ;  "  It  is  your  Father's  good 
pleasure  \.o give  you  the  kingdom  "  (Luke  xii.  32) ;  "  My 
sheep  hear  my  voice  .  .  .  and  I  give  unto  them  eternal 
life"  (John  x.  27, 28).  The  same  truth  Jesus  sets  forth  with 
almost  paradoxical  emphasis  in  the  parable  of  the  labourers 
in  the  vineyard  (Matt,  xx.)  With  that  method  of  con- 
cession to  the  ideas  of  His  hearers  which  He  often  uses, 
He  speaks  as  if  some  of  these  labourers  did  earn  the 
penny  (that  is  to  say,  eternal  life)  by  working  in  the 
vineyard  all  the  day.  This  is  no  more  than  His  concession 
in  another  place  to  the  idea  of  there  being  persons  who 
need  no  repentance.  Here  He  uses  it  to  make  more 
distinct,  by  contrast,  the  case  of  the  others  in  the  parable 
who  worked  only  portions  of  the  day,  and  yet  received 
the  penny.  So,  in  the  manner  most  effectual  with  His 
audience.  He  sets  forth  the  truth  that  eternal  life  will  be 
given  to  many  who  in  the  service  of  God  have  fallen  greatly 
short  of  earning  it,  and  that,  so  far  as  their  own  righteous- 
ness avails,  the  grace  of  God  puts  all  on  one  level.  This 
doctrine  has  its  root  in  that  which  was  the  basis  of  all 
the  teaching  of  Jesus — His  knowledge  of  God  as  the 
Father.  If  God  were  simply  King,  we  should  expect 
Him  to  judge  and  reward  men  according  to  their  work. 
The  legal  view  of  salvation  would  be  justified.  But  as 
God  is  a  Father,  it  is  in  harmony  with  His  character  to 
deal  according  to  grace. 

Now,  if  the  kingdom  is  of  grace,  the  condition  of 
entering  it  must  be  that  we  receive  the  gift.  This, 
accordingly,   is  the  chief  among  the  qualifications  for 


66  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

admission — a  readiness  to  receive  it  without  any  proud 
thought  of  a  claim  to  it  by  righteousness,  or  any  despair- 
ing thought  of  being  excluded  from  it  by  unrighteousness. 
The  spirit  required  is  that  of  the  little  child — "Verily  I 
say  unto  you,  Whosoever  shall  not  receive  the  kingdom 
of  God  as  a  little  child,  he  shall  in  no  wise  enter  therein  " 
(Luke  xviii.  17). 

And  what  makes  this  readiness  to  receive?  It  is 
faith — faith  in  Jesus,  faith  that  He  came  forth  from  God 
(John  xvi.  30 ;  xvii.  8),  faith  that  His  gospel  of  salva- 
tion is  true,  and  His  promises  of  the  kingdom  gloriously 
sufficient.  So,  as  John  Wesley  preached,  "  Faith  is  the 
beginning  of  all  good  in  thee,  O  man  !  First  believe  in 
Jesus."  *•  This  is  the  work  of  God,"  said  Jesus  Him- 
self, "  that  ye  believe  on  him  whom  he  hath  sent " 
(John  vi.  29).  But  this  faith  is  so  sure  to  be  followed 
by  receiving  the  gift  of  God,  that  in  the  Gospels  believ- 
ing and  receiving  are  spoken  of  as  practically  one,  and 
to  receive  Jesus  is  the  same  as  to  receive  eternal  life ; 
for  He  is  the  great  source  of  that  life.  He  is  the  living 
salvation.  Some  further  proofs  and  instances  may  be 
given  here  in  confirmation  of  the  principle  that  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  of  grace,  and  that  the  condition  of 
entering  it  is  not  righteousness  but  faith  to  receive. 
Jesus  spoke  of  it  as  expressly  for  sinners — "  I  came  not 
to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners  "  (Mark  ii.  17).  Great 
sinners  received  it,  and  were  filled  with  a  joy  and  a 
personal  love  to  Jesus  which  the  ordinary  world  could 
not  understand,  as  in  the  case  of  the  "woman  which 
was  a  sinner,"  to  whom  Jesus  said,  "Thy  faith  hath 
saved  thee  ;  go  in  peace  "  (Luke  vii.  36-50).  No  prefer- 
ence was  given  to  those  who  had  sinned  least,  as  if  they 
had  the  first  right  to  be  forgiven.  Rather,  in  actual 
fact,  the  publicans  and  harlots  went  into  the  kingdom 
of  God  before  the  righteous  men  of  the  time  (see  Matt. 
xxi.  31).  Our  Lord  told  in  memorable  manner  of  one 
publican  who  entered  the  kingdom  in  uttering  the  prayer 
"God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner"  (Luke  xviii.  13), 
while  a  Pharisee  who  made  his  righteousness  his  claim 


ENTRANCE  INTO  KINGDOM  OF  GOD       67 

was  rejected.  He  ended  the  story  with  this,  which 
seems  to  have  been  one  of  His  often  -  repeated  and 
favourite  sayings — "Every  one  that  exalteth  himself 
shall  be  humbled  ;  but  he  that  humbleth  himself  shall 
be  exalted."  It  is  also  a  strong  confirmation  of  the 
doctrine  of  salvation  being  a  free  gift  that  in  every  new 
generation  in  which  it  has  been  preached  and  believed, 
this  grace  of  God  has  been  magnified  in  the  changed 
lives  of  men  of  every  variety  of  culture,  condition,  and 
nation. 

2.  Thus  far  the  terms  of  admission  into  the  kingdom 
of  God  seem  to  be  the  easiest  possible.  But  there  are 
many  sayings  of  Jesus  in  which  entering  the  kingdom 
is  spoken  of  as  difficult,  and  the  terms  as  very  hard. 
**  Strive  (He  says)  to  enter  in  by  the  narrow  door  :  for 
many,  I  say  unto  you,  shall  seek  to  enter  in,  and  shall 
not  be  able  "  (Luke  xiii.  24).  "  Narrow  is  the  gate,  and 
straitened  the  way,  that  leadeth  unto  life,  and  few  be 
they  that  find  it"  (Matt.  vii.  14).  "If  any  man  cometh 
unto  me,  and  hateth  not  his  own  father,  and  mother,  and 
wife,  and  children  .  .  ,  yea,  and  his  own  life  also,  he 
cannot  be  my  disciple.  Whosoever  doth  not  bear  his 
own  cross,  and  come  after  me,  cannot  be  my  disciple  " 
(Luke  xiv.  26-27).  **  It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go 
through  a  needle's  eye,  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God"  (Mark  x.  25).  These  are  stem 
words.  No  words  could  be  used  to  make  the  terms 
of  admission  more  hard.  How  are  we  to  understand 
them? 

This  is  the  truth  they  express.  The  act  of  receiving 
the  salvation  of  God  is  accompanied  inwardly  by  a  great 
act  of  renunciation.  A  man  who  receives  the  great  gift 
of  grace  is  like  one  who  is  offered  gold  and  precious 
stones,  and  must  first,  before  he  can  receive  them,  empty 
his  hands  completely  of  rubbish  and  worthless  things, 
or  of  bad  and  hurtful  things,  with  which  they  are  filled. 
The  earthly  good  things  we  cling  to  are,  in  comparison 
with  the  things  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  such  rubbish  : 
the  sins  we  cling  to  are  worse  :  and  yet  to  give  them  up 


68  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

and  cast  them  from  us  is  very  hard.  This  great  act  of 
renunciation  is  described  by  Jesus  in  many  ways  and  by 
many  examples. 

(i)  He  calls  it  repenting.  The  beginning  of  His 
preaching  was,  *'  Repent  ye,  and  believe  in  the  gospel " 
(Mark  i.  15).  Repentance,  in  our  ordinary  speech, 
means  sorrow  for  sin  and  ceasing  from  it.  We  cannot 
receive  the  gift  of  God  and  keep  our  sin.  But  when  we 
inquire  more  deeply  what  is  meant  in  the  Gospels  by 
repentance,  we  find  that  it  is  a  complete  change  of  mind 
and  turning  to  God.  The  root  of  all  sin  is  in  departing 
from  the  living  God,  and  to  repent  is  to  renounce  our  own 
will,  and  take  the  will  of  God  as  the  guide  and  rule  of  our 
life.  Nothing  is  harder  at  first  than  this,  which  a  man 
feels  to  be,  as  it  were,  losing  his  own  self,  or  parting  from 
what  made  his  life  dear  to  him.  It  is  self-renunciation. 
But  Jesus  says,  "  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me. 
Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  but 
he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven  " 
(Matt.  vii.  21).  To  accept  the  will  of  the  Father,  to 
will  to  do  that  will  (see  John  vii.  17),  is  a  first  condition 
of  entrance  into  a  kingdom  of  which  that  will  is  the 
blessed  law. 

(2)  Another  example  and  test  Jesus  gave  of  the  great 
renunciation,  in  words  already  quoted — ' '  If  any  man 
cometh  unto  me,  and  hateth  not  his  own  father,  and 
mother,  and  wife,  and  children,  and  brethren,  and 
sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  life  also,  he  cannot  be  my 
disciple "  (Luke  xiv.  26).  How  stern  this  is  1  How 
startling  it  must  have  been  to  the  multitudes  who  were 
following  Jesus  in  easy  mood  when  He  turned  and  said 
it  to  them  I  We  know,  of  course,  that  it  is  one  of  our 
Lord's  paradoxes,  and  is  not  meant  in  the  letter.  He 
Himself  taught  as  a  commandment  of  God,  "  Honour 
thy  father  and  thy  mother  "  (Mark  vii.  9- 1 3).  He  Himself 
cared  affectionately  for  His  mother  even  when  He  was  on 
the  Cross,  and  He  strengthened  greatly  the  bond  between 
a  man  and  his  wife  (Mark  x.  5-9).  Objection  that  has 
been  taken  to  the  Christian  faith  because  of  this  saying 


ENTRANCE  INTO  KINGDOM  OF  GOD       69 

of  Jesus  is  singularly  dull-witted.  But  we  know  that  in 
these  strong  words — as  in  others,  where  He  says,  "  He 
that  loveth  father  or  mother  more  than  me  is  not  worthy 
of  me  "  (Matt.  x.  37) — He  means  that  He  Himself,  who 
is  the  King  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  must  be  first  in  our 
affections  ;  that,  if  we  would  enter  the  kingdom,  no  pain 
of  alienation  from  our  kindred,  even  those  nearest  to  us, 
on  account  of  it,  must  be  allowed  to  hinder.  There 
were  great  separations  in  those  days  on  account  of  the 
faith  of  Christ — a  man's  foes  were  often  those  of  his  own 
household — and  still  there  are  often  painful  alienations 
because  of  Christ ;  but  this  hardness  must  be  borne  for 
the  kingdom  of  God,  and  for  Jesus  who  is  the  living 
salvation.  "  Yea,  his  own  life  also  "  a  man  must  hate. 
The  natural  life  must,  in  a  true  sense,  be  surrendered,  if  a 
man  would  obtain  the  eternal  life,  which  is  the  natural  life 
transfigured.  So  Jesus  expresses  the  alternatives  before 
us  in  this  often-repeated  paradox,  "  Whosoever  would 
save  his  life  shall  lose  it ;  and  whosoever  shall  lose  his 
life  for  my  sake  and  the  gospel's  shall  save  it "  (Mark 
viii.  35.     See  Luke  ix.  24). 

(3)  Another  example  Jesus  gave  as  follows — "  Who- 
soever doth  not  bear  his  own  cross,  and  come  after  me, 
cannot  be  my  disciple"  (Luke  xiv.  27).  How  strong 
this  language  !  As  if  it  were  now  said,  "  Whosoever 
does  not  follow  me  to  the  scaffold,  he  cannot  be  mine." 
No  consideration  of  ease,  no  prospect  of  humiliation  or 
suffering  must  hinder  from  following  Jesus. 

(4)  Another  example  still — "Whosoever  he  be  of 
you  that  renounceth  not  all  that  he  hath,  he  cannot  be 
my  disciple  "  (Luke  xiv.  33).  ^^Forsaketh  not  all  that  he 
hath  "  is  our  ordinary  translation,  and  many  have  under- 
stood it  literally.  Jesus,  indeed,  demanded  it  so  of  one 
young  man  who  asked.  What  lack  I  yet  ?  The  answer 
was,  "  Go,  sell  that  thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor,  and 
thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven  :  and  come,  follow 
me"  (Matt.  xix.  21).  This  saying  was  the  beginning 
of  monasticism.  In  the  third  Christian  century  a 
rich  young  Egyptian  heard  it  read  one  day  in  church} 


70  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

and,  obeying  it  to  the  letter,  became  the  first  monk, 
known  as  St.  Anthony.  How  are  we  to  understand  this 
demand  of  Jesus  ?  It  must  mean  some  great  thing  ; 
and  yet,  if  the  best  Christians  now  are  not  wholly  in 
error,  it  does  not  always  mean  what  Anthony  did,  and 
what  that  young  man  was  called  by  Jesus  to  do.  This 
is  what  it  means.  The  tie  must  be  broken  which  a 
man  makes  in  his  natural  life  between  himself  and  his 
goods.  He  must  cease  to  be  owner  of  them  in  his 
own  reckoning,  and  become  only  steward.  He  must 
think  of  them  as  God's,  and  as  to  be  spent,  not  according 
to  his  own  will  but  the  will  of  God.  Now,  this  change 
from  owner  to  steward,  if  true  and  complete,  is  felt  to  be 
a  real  renouncing  of  all  that  he  hath.  It  is  hard  to  do, 
often  as  hard  for  the  poor  man  who  renounces  earthly 
hopes,  as  for  the  rich  who  renounces  actual  possessions. 
"  We  may  follow  the  guidance  of  Mammon  beckoning 
from  afar,  with  a  trust  as  idolatrous  as  if  we  held  his  hand." 
The  hardness  of  the  terms  of  salvation  and  of  entrance 
into  the  kingdom  in  this  aspect  of  renunciation  may  be 
confirmed  by  many  other  sayings  of  Jesus.  It  was 
evidently  the  choice  of  His  wisdom  in  dealing  with  men, 
that  the  full  truth  should  be  known  by  them.  When  a 
man  offered  himself  and  said,  "  I  will  follow  thee 
whithersoever  thou  goest,"  Jesus  warned  him  to  expect 
utter  poverty — "  The  foxes  have  holes,  and  the  birds  of 
the  heaven  have  nests ;  but  the  Son  of  man  hath  not 
where  to  lay  his  head."  When  He  called  another  to 
follow  Him  and  the  man  said,  "  Lord,  suffer  me  first  to 
go  and  bury  my  father," — meaning,  perhaps,  to  bear  his 
father  company  till  death — ^Jesus  said,  "  Leave  the  dead 
to  bury  their  own  dead  ;  but  go  thou  and  publish  abroad 
the  kingdom  of  God."  When  another  said  to  Him,  **  I 
will  follow  thee.  Lord  ;  but  first  suffer  me  to  bid  farewell 
to  them  that  are  at  my  house," — ^Jesus  answered,  **  No 
man,  having  put  his  hand  to  the  plough,  and  looking 
back  (clinging,  that  is,  in  heart,  to  the  things  of  the 
natural  life),  is  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  God  "  (Luke  ix. 
57-62).     And  in  speaking  of  the  rich  young  man,  "  It 


ENTRANCE  INTO  KINGDOM  OF  GOD       71 

is  easier,"  He  said,  "for  a  camel  to  go  through  a  needle's 
eye,  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
God  "  (Mark  x.  25). 

There  are,  indeed,  great  compensations  assured  for 
the  renunciation  demanded  by  Jesus,  compensations  far 
outweighing  those  losses  and  separations.  Salvation 
and  eternal  Hfe  are  great  offers,  for  which  great  things 
may  well  be  given  up.  And  Jesus  says,  with  expressive 
emphasis  of  detail,  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  There  is  no 
man  that  hath  left  house,  or  brethren,  or  sisters,  or 
mother,  or  father,  or  children,  or  lands,  for  my  sake,  and 
for  the  gospel's  sake,  but  he  shall  receive  a  hundredfold 
now  in  this  time,  houses,  and  brethren,  and  sisters,  and 
mothers,  and  children,  and  lands,  with  persecutions ;  and 
in  the  world  to  come  eternal  life "  (Mark  x.  29,  30). 
Faith  in  Jesus  whom  God  hath  sent,  that  faith  which 
our  Lord  declares  to  be  the  fundamental  work  of  a 
Christian  soul  (John  vi.  29) — faith  which  is  the  faculty 
of  beholding  what  is  unseen,  and  treating  the  promises 
of  God  as  certain  possessions — this  might  enable  the 
man  to  make  the  great  exchange  and  to  accept  the  gift 
of  eternal  life,  even  at  the  cost  which  Jesus  has  in  so 
many  ways  exemplified. 

But  there  is  something  to  be  learned  about  this  from 
a  saying  of  Jesus  which  we  must  not  omit.  In  answer  to 
His  word  about  its  being  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through 
the  eye  of  a  needle  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  His  disciples  said  in  astonishment 
and  alarm,  "Then  who  can  be  saved?"  (Mark  x.  26) — 
meaning  who  can,  whether  rich  or  poor  ?  Jesus  accepted 
their  dilemma;  their  fear  was  well  founded.  "With 
men  it  is  impossible,"  He  said.  He  carried  His  estimate 
of  the  difficulty  of  entering  the  kingdom  to  the  height  of 
placing  it  beyond  human  power  in  any  case,  and  He  gave 
the  only  solution  of  this  enigma  of  salvation  by  adding  the 
words,  "But  ...  all  things  are  possible  with  God^^ 
(Mark  x.  27). 

From  these  words  we  learn  that  not  only  is  eternal 
life  a  gift  of  God,  free  and  unearned  by  man,  but  the 


72  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

power  to  renounce  the  things  that  hinder  and  to  receive  the 
gift  needs  the  working  of  God  also  in  the  man.  By  him 
self  alone  man  cannot  raise  his  faith  in  Jesus,  and  in  the 
gift  of  God  through  Him,  to  such  power  and  vivid  force 
as  to  be  able  to  make  the  great  exchange  of  the  natural 
life  for  the  eternal,  the  things  of  the  world  for  the  things 
promised  by  Jesus.  Salvation  is,  we  perceive,  in  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  a  divine  mystery,  whether  it  is  regarded 
on  the  side  of  God  or  on  the  side  of  man.  We  cannot 
divide  it  into  divine  and  human  parts  saying  that  the  gift 
is  God's,  the  receiving  is  man's  ;  for  even  the  receiving 
is  impossible  without  God.  And  this  mystery  is  not  only 
in  the  teaching  of  Jesus ;  it  is  in  the  experience  of  His 
followers.  If  we  take  the  evidence  of  those  whose  entrance 
into  the  kingdom  of  God  has  been  most  fully  conscious, 
and  is  most  vividly  remembered,  we  shall  find  that  while 
there  was  a  human  element  in  it,  and  they  acted  accord- 
ing to  those  words  which  call  for  the  utmost  energy  of 
man  in  seeking  salvation,  ^^ Strive  to  enter  in"  (Luke 
xiii.  24),  "The  kingdom  of  heaven  suflfereth  violence,  and 
men  of  violence  take  it  by  force"  (Matt.  xi.  12),  yet  their 
actual  entrance  was  accomplished  only  when,  in  the  ex- 
tremity of  their  own  inability,  they  cast  themselves  upon 
God.  It  was  not  by  strong  resolution  that  they  entered 
the  kingdom,  but  by  a  surrender  to  God  in  which  they 
looked  for  that  which  was  impossible  with  men  to  be 
proved  possible  with  Him. 

There  remains  one  discourse  of  Jesus  yet  to  be  con- 
sidered in  regard  to  admission  into  the  kingdom,  a  dis- 
course which  is  usually  felt  to  stand  alone.  The  discourse 
of  Jesus  in  the  third  chapter  of  St.  John  is  alone  in  one 
respect,  that  only  there  in  that  Gospel  is  '*  the  kingdom  of 
God"  so  named.  Why  the  title  is  so  frequent  in  the  first 
three  Gospels  and  so  rare  in  the  fourth  we  may  be  unable 
to  explain.  But  the  thing  which  in  this  discourse  has 
been  counted  very  exceptional  is  the  declaration  of  Jesus 
to  Nicodemus,  "Except  a  man  be  born  anew,  he  cannot 
see  the  kingdom  of  God,"  and  again,  '*  Except  a  man  be 
born  of  water  and  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into  the 


ENTRANCE  INTO  KINGDOM  OF  GOD       73 


kingdom  of  God  "  (John  iii.  3,  5).     Many  have  objected 
to  this  teaching  in  the  fourth  Gospel  as  mystical,  super- 
natural, and  inconsistent  with  the  plainer  teaching  of  the 
first  three.     But  from  what  we  have  already  reached  in 
our  study  of  sayings  taken  from  these,  we  may  see  that 
the  place  of  divine  mystery  is  no  higher  in  the  Gospel 
of  St.  John  than  in  the  others.     Jesus  does,  indeed,  in 
that  Gospel  require  a  new  birth.     He  plainly  teaches  that 
the  things  of  the  kingdom  of  God  are  spiritual,  and  so 
different  from  the  earthly  good  things  for  which  Nicodemus 
and  others  hoped,  that  a  divine  change  in  the  nature  and 
affections  is  needed  before  a  man  can  see  those  higher 
things— see  them  in  their  truth  and  beauty,  and  so  love 
them   as   to   be    at  home    in   the  enjoyment  of  them. 
Without  this  change  wrought  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  the 
things  of  the  kingdom  of  God  do  not  exist  for  a  man  as 
good  things ;  he  is  unable  to  receive  them  and  unable  to  re- 
nounce the  things  of  the  natural  life.     «' That  which  is  born 
of  the  flesh  is  flesh  " ;  only ' '  that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit 
is  spirit "  (John  iii.  6),  only  this  can  enter  the  kingdom 
of  God.    It  is  expressly  declared  to  be  a  mystery.    "The 
wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest  the  voice 
thereof,  but  knowest  not  whence  it  cometh,  and  whither 
it  goeth  :    so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit " 
(John  iii.  8).      But  the  mystery  is  in  full  harmony  with 
what  we  have  learned  from  the  teaching  of  Jesus  in  the 
other  Gospels.      They,  too,  represent   salvation   as  an 
enigma  of  which  the  only  solution  is  God.      In  them,  too, 
a  man's  entrance  into  life  is  by  the  power  of  God,  on 
whom  he  has  cast  himself,  that  He  may  work  in  him  to 
will  and  to  do. 

We  may  now  recall  from  the  beginning  what  we  have 
found  in  our  endeavour  to  put  together  the  many  sayings 
of  Jesus  about  admission  into  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
about  its  terms.  First,  admission  is  of  gc^ce,  gratis. 
Salvation  is  a  gift  so  free  that  sinners  may  have  it,  even 
**  publicans  and  harlots  "  ;  it  is  expressly  for  sinners,  and 
it  requires  only  faith  to  receive  it.  But  for  this  receiv- 
ing, we  learn   from   the   teaching  of  Jesus  in  all  the 


74  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

Gospels,  a  mystery  of  divine  working  in  us  is  needed. 
We  read  in  St.  Mark,  **  With  men  it  is  impossible,  but 
not  with  God  :  for  all  things  are  possible  with  God " 
(Mark  x.  27).  We  read  in  St.  John,  "  Except  a  man 
be  born  of  water  and  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God  "  (John  iii.  5).  The  faith  in  Jesus, 
which  moves  us  to  receive  Him  and  commit  ourselves  to 
Him,  is  too  high  a  thing  to  be  wholly  of  man. 
Two  observations  may  yet  be  made. 

1.  This  teaching  has  no  need  to  fear  objection  on 
account  of  its  mystery.  The  demand  often  made  for 
religion  without  mystery  is  a  very  superficial  one,  and 
the  attempt  to  meet  it  fails  to  satisfy.  When  salvation 
has  been  so  explained  as  to  be  brought  down  to  a  natural 
human  level  without  any  mystery,  it  ceases  to  command 
the  faith  and  reverence  of  men.  They  are  inwardly 
conscious  that  they  need  a  great  and  divine  change  ;  and 
all  who  are  partakers  of  the  salvation  of  Christ  attribute 
it  to  God  that  they  have  attained  to  this  grace.  **  It 
was  the  good  pleasure  of  God  (says  St.  Paul),  who 
separated  me,  even  from  my  mother's  womb,  and  called 
me  through  his  grace,  to  reveal  his  Son  in  me  "  (Gal.  i. 
15,  16).  A  similar  account  Christian  people  still  give  of 
their  standing  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  And  every 
authentic  record  of  a  soul  being  brought  into  the  king- 
dom is  felt  to  be  worthy  of  reverent  attention,  because 
God  has  been  in  it. 

2.  This  doctrine  of  a  mystery  of  divine  grace  in  the 
salvation  of  a  soul  places  no  barrier  in  the  way  of  any 
one's  salvation,  even  though  Jesus  says  expressly,  **  No 
man  can  come  to  me,  except  the  Father  which  sent  me 
draw  him "  (John  vi.  44).  Salvation  is  not  on  this 
account  in  any  degree  less  possible.  We  are  only  thrown 
thereby  upon  God,  and  this  makes  salvation  certainly 
possible.  It  is  no  bar  to  entering  the  kingdom  that  we 
must  depend  on  God  to  bring  us  into  it ;  for  if  there  is 
one  truth  more  sure  than  another  from  the  revelation  of 
Jesus  regarding  the  Father  it  is,  that  in  the  salvation  of 
any  soul  God  may  be  depended  on. 


BLESSINGS  OF  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    -js 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   BLESSINGS   OF   THE    KINGDOM   OF  GOD 

X.  The  great  Gospel  promise  of  blessedness  belongs  to  a 
future  and  eternal  life — This  contrasts  with  Old  Testa- 
ment teaching.  2.  The  blessedness  promised  is 
spiritual — This  contrasts  with  the  common  expecta- 
tion of  Jews  of  our  Lord's  time.  3.  Present  blessings 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  :  {a)  forgiveness ;  [b)  life, 
of  which  Jesus  is  the  source  and  support — Mystery  of 
this  life — Its  meaning  and  value — Result  of  these  two 
blessings  great  and  eternal ;  {c)  Other  blessings  con- 
sequent on  them.  4.  Jesus'  teaching  in  regard  to 
earthly  good  things.  5,  Two  objections  to  His  teach- 
ing of  eternal  reward,  and  answers  to  these. 

'T^HE  whole  ministry  of  Jesus,  in  gracious  word  and 
-'■  mighty  deed,  breathes  an  atmosphere  of  blessing 
for  those  who  believe  on  Him  and  are  admitted  into  the 
kingdom  of  God.  We  shall  in  this  chapter  try  to  dis- 
tinguish and  reckon  up  the  blessings  He  promises. 

I.  First  we  perceive  that  the  great  hope  announced 
by  Jesus  belongs  to  a  future  life  and  future  world.  In 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  (Matt.  vi.  i  fF.)  a  reward  with 
the  Father  in  heaven  is  spoken  of  as  the  great  gain  of 
true  righteousness,  the  sadness  of  the  case  of  hypocrites 
being  that  *'  they  have  received  their  reward  " — that  is 
to  say,  all  the  reward  they  will  get  is  an  earthly  one, 
the  praise  of  men.  The  kingdom  of  God,  to  be  sought 
first  as  the  supreme  good — also  spoken  of  as  the  hid 
treasure  and  the  pearl  of  great  price — is,  in  its  main 
sense  and  full  accomplishment,  a  thing  of  another  life 
than  this  present.     It  is  at  the  judgment  day,  when  men 


76  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

are  raised  from  the  dead,  that  the  Judge  will  say  to  the 
righteous,  **  Inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world  "  (Matt.  xxv.  34.  See  also 
Mark  ix.  47,  48).  Accordingly,  another  name  for  this 
greatest  good  is  "eternal  life,"  which  in  the  first  three 
Gospels  refers  only  to  the  future — "  in  the  world  to  come 
eternal  life  "  (Mark  x.  30).  "  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves 
(says  Jesus)  treasures  upon  the  earth  .  .  .  but  lay  up  for 
yourselves  treasures  in  heaven"  (Matt.  vi.  19,  20).  And 
among  the  hopes  with  which  He  comforted  His  disciples 
when  about  to  part  from  them  this  was  the  first,  "  In  my 
Father's  house  are  many  mansions ;  if  it  were  not  so,  I 
would  have  told  you;  for  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you  "  (John  xiv.  2). 

This  is  a  great  change  from  the  teaching  of  the  Old 
Testament,  in  which,  for  the  most  part,  the  good  things 
promised  to  the  righteous  are  things  of  this  present  world. 
Jesus  '*  abolished  death,  and  brought  life  and  incorrup- 
tion  to  light,"  and  having  thus  vastly  widened  the  view 
and  hope  of  men.  He  placed  in  the  world  beyond  death 
the  great  experience  of  God's  favour  to  the  righteous. 
Instead  of  prosperity  in  this  life  being  the  sure  portion 
of  God's  people,  Jesus  warns  His  disciples  very  plainly 
that  they  will  suffer  persecution,  that  the  world  will  hate 
them  ;  and  He  sometimes  calls  on  them  to  rejoice  in  those 
persecutions  as  certain  marks  of  fellowship  with  Himself. 
"  If  ye  were  of  the  world,  the  world  would  love  its  own  : 
but  because  ye  are  not  of  the  world,  but  I  chose  you 
out  of  the  world,  therefore  the  world  hateth  you  "  (John 
XV.  19.  See  also  John  xv.  18,  and  Matt.  x.  25).  "In 
the  world  ye  have  tribulation  "  (John  xvi.  33).  In  this 
language  of  Jesus  about  temporal  prosperity  there  is 
some  basis  for  the  paradox  of  Lord  Bacon,  "  Prosperity 
is  the  blessing  of  the  Old  Testament,  adversity  of  the 
New." 

2.  Next  we  find  that  the  blessings  of  the  life  to  come 
are,  in  the  view  of  Jesus,  spiritual  blessings.  This  is  in 
strong  contrast  with  the  beliefs  of  the  Jews  of  His  time. 
They  had  attained  to  believe  much  more  than  their  fore- 


BLESSINGS  OF  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    jj 

fathers  did  in  a  life  after  this  present.  They  had  made 
such  advance  upon  the  faith  of  former  days  that  they 
believed — the  Sadducees  excepted — in  the  resurrection  of 
the  just  to  a  blessed  life.  But  the  blessings  to  which 
the  righteous  would  be  raised  were,  in  their  expectation, 
simply  temporal  blessings — abundance  of  the  good  things 
of  this  life.  The  kingdom  of  God,  in  their  view,  was 
to  bring  a  time  of  overflowing  wealth,  of  miraculous  plenty 
in  corn  and  wine,  and  of  extraordinary  earthly  splendour 
and  happiness,  which  the  just  would  be  raised  again  to 
share.  In  Jesus'  teaching  the  blessings  of  the  life  to  come 
are  spiritual.  The  great  joy  of  that  life  He  does,  indeed, 
often  present  under  the  symbol  of  a  feast,  as  in  the 
parable  of  the  great  supper  (Luke  xiv.  15-24),  and  in 
that  of  the  marriage-feast  of  the  king's  son  (Matt.  xxii. 
I- 1 4);  and  the  great  future  woe  He  represents  under 
the  form  of  being  excluded  from  the  feast,  and  left  outside 
in  the  dark.  But  it  is  most  plain  that  when  He  speaks 
of  reclining  at  table,  and  of  eating  and  drinking  in  the 
future  kingdom  of  God,  He  means  the  bliss  of  spiritual 
joy  and  of  spiritual  fellowship.  It  is  such  blessedness  as 
the  pure  in  heart  have  in  seeing  God  (Matt.  v.  8),  as  the 
true  children  of  God  have  in  being  with  Him  in  His 
house,  and  as  they  have  in  perfect  fellowship  with  one 
another.  When  Jesus  prays  for  His  disciples  before  His 
death,  the  great  thing  He  asks  for  them  is  that  they  may 
be  with  Him  where  He  is,  and  may  behold  His  glory  ; 
also  "that  the  love  wherewith  thou  lovedst  me  may  be 
in  them,  and  I  in  them  *'  (John  xvii.  24,  26).  Such 
spiritual  blessings  are  those  which  are  called  by  Jesus 
"the  true  riches  "  in  contrast  to  the  wealth  of  this  world, 
"the  unrighteous  mammon"  (Luke  xvi.  11).  And, 
unlike  the  treasures  of  earth,  neither  moth  nor  rust  doth 
consume  them. 

Thus  far  we  find  that  the  great  promises  of  Jesus  refer 
to  the  life  to  come,  and  are  of  a  spiritual  character. 

3.  Are  there,  then,  no  blessings  promised  by  Jesus  for 
this  present  life  ?  Do  His  promises  belong  entirely  to  the 
world  to  come  ?  Has  He  foretold  nothing  for  His  followers 


78  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

while  they  are  here  but  the  persecutions  of  which  He 
warned  them  ?  Does  He,  for  this  present  time,  bid  them 
only  wait  and  hope  saying,  "Fear  not,  little  flock  ;  for 
it  is  the  Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom." 
Very  far  from  this.  Jesus  represents  His  followers  as 
much  more  blessed  even  here  and  now  than  men  of  the 
world.  He  does  so,  however,  in  full  harmony  with  His 
great  preference  of  spiritual  blessings  over  temporal,  in 
full  harmony  with  His  saying,  **  A  man's  life  consisteth 
not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  which  he  possesseth  '* 
(Luke  xii.  15).  His  followers  are  so  greatly  blessed,  be- 
cause spiritual  blessings  can  be  enjoyed  in  large  measure 
even  in  this  life.  For  though  we  are  here  in  the  body, 
our  spiritual  part  is  by  far  the  more  important.  It  is  in 
the  heart  that  we  are  truly  blest  or  unblest ;  and  the 
kingdom  of  God  begins  here  in  the  heart  and  soul. 

(a)  The  first  of  the  blessings  of  the  kingdom  received 
in  this  life  is  the  forgiveness  of  sins.  This  had  a  great 
place  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  In  one  of  His  parables 
He  likened  it  to  the  cancelling  of  a  debt  of  ten  thousand 
talents  (Matt,  xviii.  24).  In  a  most  solemn  hour  He 
spoke  of  His  blood  as  "shed  for  many  unto  remission 
of  sins  "  (Matt.  xxvi.  28).  And  when  He  had  risen  from 
the  dead  He  announced  as  a  divine  purpose,  to  which 
the  Scriptures  bore  witness,  "That  repentance  and  remis- 
sion of  sins  should  be  preached  in  his  name  unto  all  the 
nations "  (Luke  xxiv.  47).  It  is  also  plain  from  His 
teaching  that  forgiveness  follows  immediately  on  repent- 
ance. It  is  a  grace  of  the  very  entrance  into  the  king- 
dom of  God.  Often  it  was  the  happy  experience  of  sinners 
who  came  to  Jesus  to  hear  Him  say  in  their  first  hour 
of  converse  with  Him,  "  Thy  sins  are  forgiven,"  or  "  Thy 
faith  hath  saved  thee  ;  go  in  peace,"  or  "  Her  sins,  which 
are  many,  are  forgiven"  (Mark  ii.  5  ;  Luke  vii.  47-50). 
And  not  only  while  He  was  on  earth  did  Jesus  speak  this 
word,  "  Thy  sins  are  forgiven."  Even  now  when  any  man 
is  visited  by  that  sense  of  sin  which  came  like  a  lightning- 
flash  into  the  heart  of  Isaiah  at  the  vision  of  God  (Isaiah 
vi. ),  and  into  the  heart  of  the  Psalmist  at  the  thought  that  he 


BLESSINGS  OF  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    79 

had  done  evil  in  God's  sight  (Ps.  11.),  and  the  man  who  is 
so  visited  comes  to  Jesus  truly  believing  in  His  power  to 
forgive,  He  makes  the  same  answer,  and  usually  in  such 
a  manner  that  it  is  heard  in  the  depths  of  the  spirit.  The 
truth  of  Jesus  responds  to  truth  in  the  heart  that  seeks 
Him.  By  the  influence  of  His  Spirit,  using  perhaps  the 
instrumentality  of  His  word  or  His  sacraments,  a  deep 
and  sweet  persuasion  is  wrought  in  the  penitent  heart 
of  forgiveness  received,  and  His  blood,  shed  (as  He 
Himself  said)  for  the  remission  of  sins,  is  an  abiding 
seal  and  assurance  of  this  grace.  No  blessing  can  be 
felt  greater  than  this,  which  is  received  in  first  entering 
the  kingdom  of  God  ;  for  thereby  the  pain  of  self-con- 
demnation is  relieved,  and  the  burden  of  God's  condem- 
nation taken  quite  away.  The  walls  of  separation 
between  God  and  the  soul  are  broken  down,  the  man  is 
brought  to  God  as  a  child  to  a  reconciled  Father,  and  in 
this  very  beginning  of  salvation  there  is  often  an  experience 
of  joy  as  profound  as  any  in  its  whole  earthly  course. 

In  the  prayer  which  Jesus  taught  His  disciples, 
evidently  as  a  form  and  model  of  daily  prayer.  He  bade 
them  say,  **  Forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  also  have  for- 
given our  debtors"  (Matt.  vi.  12).  This  does  not  imply 
that  forgiveness  is  daily  lost  by  the  sins  and  imperfections 
to  which  human  infirmity  is  liable,  or  that  by  these  sins 
the  once  forgiven  man  is  thrown  daily  back  into  the  fear 
and  terror  of  God's  condemnation.  Jesus  said,  "  He  that 
is  bathed  " — in  other  words,  he  that  has  received  a 
great  forgiveness  like  the  washing  of  the  whole  body — 
**  needeth  not  save  to  wash  his  feet  " — that  is,  from  daily 
partial  defilements — **  but  is  clean  every  whit  "  (John  xiii. 
10).  The  great  forgiveness  remains  ;  the  peace  of  it 
should  be  unbroken  ;  and  the  daily  prayer,  '*  Forgive  us 
our  debts,"  serves  simply  the  purpose  of  asking  and 
receiving  from  the  reconciled  Father  the  forgiveness  daily 
needed  because  of  sinful  infirmity.  With  the  very  accept- 
ance of  our  service  of  each  day  there  needs  to  be  mingled 
forgiveness  of  its  faults  ;  and  the  sense  of  this  forgiveness 
is  kept  fresh  within  us  by  such  confession  and  prayer. 


8o  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

[fi)  A  second  great  blessing  of  the  kingdom  of  God  is 
life.  This  is  a  divine  gift  much  spoken  of  by  Jesus  in 
His  discourses  in  St.  John's  Gospel.  It  has  by  no  means 
the  same  meaning  with  that  which  we  ordinarily  call 
**  life."  Indeed  those  who  have  only  the  ordinary  natural 
life  of  men  are  spoken  of  as  dead  in  comparison  with 
those  who  possess  this  life.  These  last  are  said  to  have 
"passed  out  of  death  into  life"  (John  v.  24).  The  full 
name  for  this  new  life  in  St.  John's  Gospel  is  **  eternal 
life  "  (v.  24),  by  which  is  still  meant  a  gift  that  is  bestowed 
now  in  this  world,  but  one  which  is  of  an  origin  and  quality 
above  the  natural  and  temporal  life  of  man.  To  give  this 
life  Jesus  declares  to  have  been  His  great  errand  in  coming 
into  the  world — "  I  came  that  they  may  have  life,  and  may 
have  it  abundantly"  (John  x.  10).  He  declares  Himself 
to  be  the  source  of  it — '*  I  am  .  .  .  the  life"  (John  xiv. 
6).  "Whoever  hears  His  word  and  believes  in  it,  receives 
the  gift — "Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  He  that  heareth 
my  word,  and  believeth  him  that  sent  me,  hath  eternal 
life"  (v.  24).  "Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  He  that  be- 
lieveth hath  eternal  life"  (vi.  47).  The  beginning  of  this 
life  is  in  the  new  birth  spoken  of  in  the  third  chapter  of  St. 
John ;  and  though  this  is  by  the  Spirit  (iii.  5),  Jesus  is  none 
the  less  the  source  of  the  life,  having  Himself  received  it 
from  the  Father  in  order  that  He  might  bestow  it  among 
men — "As  the  Father  hath  life  in  himself,  even  so 
gave  he  to  the  Son  also  to  have  life  in  himself"  (v. 
26) ;  "  Thou  gavest  him  authority  over  all  flesh,  that 
whatsoever  thou  hast  given  him,  to  them  he  should  give 
eternal  life  "  (xvii.  2).  Jesus  is  not  only  the  source  but 
the  support  of  this  life,  as  He  declares  in  the  words,  "  I 
am  the  bread  of  life"  (vi.  35) ;  "  I  am  the  living  bread 
which  came  down  out  of  heaven"  (vi.  51).  He  gives 
Himself  for  the  life  of  the  world  specially  in  His  death, 
and  the  promise  is  to  those  who  feed  upon  Him  thus 
sacrificed — '*  He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my 
blood  hath  eternal  life  ;  ...  for  my  flesh  is  meat  indeed, 
and  my  blood  is  drink  indeed"  (vi.  54,  55). 

In  this  teaching  about  "  life  "  there  is,  no  doubt, 


BLESSINGS  OF  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    8i 


great  mystery.  But  as  it  is  the  fact  that,  with  all  our 
science,  we  can  little  explore  the  mystery  of  our  natural 
life  which  we  received  in  coming  into  the  world,  we 
need  not  be  surprised  that  the  mystery  of  this  divine  life, 
which  Jesus  came  from  heaven  to  give,  should  surpass 
our  knowledge.  And  what  Jesus  says  of  eating  the 
bread  that  came  down  from  heaven  —  eating  His  flesh 
and  drinking  His  blood — may  cease  to  be  such  a  hard 
saying  when  we  find,  by  putting  together  different 
utterances  in  the  same  discourse,  that  coming  to  Jesus, 
believing  on  Him,  eating  His  flesh  and  drinking  His 
blood,  are  all  names  for  similar  spiritual  acts  of  faith  in 
Jesus,  and  communion  with  Him  for  our  salvation.  Thus, 
while  we  read,  "Except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of 
man  and  drink  his  blood,  ye  have  not  life  in  yourselves  " 
(John  vi.  53),  we  also  read,  "This  is  the  will  of  my 
Father,  that  every  one  that  beholdeth  the  Son,  and 
believeth  on  him,  should  have  eternal  life "  (vi.  40). 
*'  Crede  et  manducasti,"  said  St.  Augustine  :  **  Believe, 
and  thou  hast  eaten." 

The  meaning  and  value  of  this  blessing  of  the  kingdom 
may  be  made  clearer  in  the  following  manner.  The  story 
of  the  prodigal  son  (Luke  xv.)  is  an  image  of  man's  return 
to  God  and  his  forgiveness.  But  if  the  son,  after  his  return 
and  after  the  first  joy  of  his  welcome  home,  found  himself 
without  love  to  his  father,  without  relish  for  his  father's 
society,  and  without  interest  in  his  father's  affairs  ;  if  his 
tastes  and  likings  had  been  so  degraded  by  his  habit  of 
life  in  the  far  country  that  he  could  not  care  for  the  way 
of  life  in  his  father's  house,  it  is  plain  that,  even  though 
forgiven  and  welcomed  and  restored  to  the  place  of  a  son, 
he  would  be  unblessed,  miserable,  and  without  strength 
to  live  the  life  of  fellowship  with  his  father.  Not  other- 
wise would  it  be  with  any  man  who  had  received  the 
first-named  blessing  of  the  kingdom,  forgiveness,  and  had 
been  brought  to  the  Father,  if  he  were  without  the  filial 
mind  toward  God,  had  not  similar  tastes,  and  lacked 
the  moral  strength  to  do  the  will  of  God.  He  would  be 
miserable.     His  reconciliation  to  God  would  be  a  failure 


82  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

if  he  did  not  also  receive  the  gift  of  the  true  son's  heart 
toward  God,  with  the  nature  and  disposition  to  love  Him, 
and  to  love  what  He  loves.  Now  the  gift  of  life — this 
divine  and  eternal  life  in  the  soul  of  man,  of  which  Jesus  is 
the  one  source,  and  which  He  gives  more  and  more  abund- 
antly to  those  who  believe  in  Him  and  seek  to  live  by  Him 
— is  a  spring  and  living  source  of  those  pure  affections  by 
which  a  man  is  raised  above  the  world,  truly  dwells  in 
the  kingdom  of  God,  is  at  home  in  that  kingdom,  and 
has  the  love  toward  God,  the  zeal  for  God's  honour,  and 
the  strength  in  His  service  which  befit  a  child  of  God, 
and  which  constitute  his  true  happiness.  No  doubt  a 
sense  of  reconciliation  to  God  does  naturally  stir  great 
gratitude  and  earnest  moral  purpose ;  but  when  we  think 
of  the  instability  of  our  human  nature,  and  how  much 
our  will  has  been  weakened  by  yielding  to  sin,  we  shall 
value  exceedingly  this  divine  gift  of  life,  in  receiving 
which  we  have  quickened  in  us  the  will  to  obey  the 
Father  as  children,  and  are  also  endowed  with  power  to 
do  it,  with  moral  strength,  and  with  affinity  of  nature  to 
the  truth  of  God. 

These  two  blessings  of  the  kingdom,  forgiveness 
and  life,  already  involve  so  much  in  their  first  bestowal 
that  they  can  hardly  be  added  to  except  by  the  life  being 
given  more  abundantly.  For  by  forgiveness  we  have 
God  for  our  reconciled  Father,  and  by  the  gift  of  divine 
life  we  receive  the  heart  and  affections  of  children  of  God. 
So  we  are  made  in  a  deep  sense  one  with  God,  which, 
in  itself  and  in  its  consequences,  is  the  true  and  final 
blessedness  of  our  being.  And  while  the  experience  of 
this  blessedness  begins  now,  the  •*  life  "  is  "  eternal "  not 
only  (as  before  said)  in  respect  of  its  origin  and  quality, 
but  also  in  respect  of  its  duration.  Being  divine  in  its 
source,  and  of  a  quality  above  the  natural  life,  the  death 
of  the  body  is  unable  to  destroy  it,  and  loses  significance 
as  a  real  death.  The  man  who  has  it  "shall  never  see 
death"  (John  viii.  51).  It  attains  its  goal  and  com- 
pletion in  the  raising  of  the  body  itself  to  a  new  and  un- 
dying life.     The  climax  of  the  promise  of  life  is  in  the 


BLESSINGS  OF  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    83 

word  repeated  again  and  again,  "and  I  will  raise  him 
up  at  the  last  day  "  (John  vi.  40,  44,  54).  We  have  also 
this  great  saying  of  Jesus,  "  I  am  the  resurrection,  and  the 
life  :  he  that  believeth  on  me,  though  he  die,  yet  shall  he 
live  :  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  on  me  shall 
never  die"  (John  xi.  25).. 

{c)  Other  great  blessings  which  Jesus  promised  for  this 
present  life,  will  occur  to  readers  of  the  Gospels.  It  is 
needful  only  to  name  some  of  them  shortly,  because  they 
are  all  implied  in  these  two  fundamental  gifts,  or 
consequent  on  them.  They  are  consequent  on  our  be- 
longing to  God  by  reconciliation  as  His  children,  or  on 
our  sharing  the  divine  life. 

There  is  the  great  blessing  of  the  Father's  keepings 
which  Jesus  asks  for  His  disciples  with  urgency,  on 
account  of  their  exposure  in  a  hostile  world — "Holy 
Father,  keep  them  in  thy  name  which  thou  hast  given 
me  "  ;  *'  I  pray  not  that  thou  shouldest  take  them  from 
the  world,  but  that  thou  shouldest  keep  them  from  the 
evil  one"  (John  xvii.  11,  15). 

There  is  the  Father's  sanctifying^  or  more  exactly,  His 
consecrating  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus  to  their  work  for  Him 
in  the  world,  so  that,  renouncing  self-gratification,  they 
maybe  entirely  devoted  to  it — "Sanctify  them  in  the 
truth  :  thy  word  is  truth.  As  thou  didst  send  me  into 
the  world,  even  so  sent  I  them  into  the  world.  And  for 
their  sakes  I  sanctify  myself,  that  they  themselves  also 
may  be  sanctified  in  truth"  (John  xvii.  17-19). 

There  is  the  Father's  discipline,  which  comes  through 
the  word  of  Jesus,  and,  when  more  is  needful,  through 
affliction  experienced  in  the  natural  life,  and  checking  the 
carnal  will.  "  My  Father  is  the  husbandman  .  .  .  every 
branch  [in  me]  that  beareth  fruit,  he  cleanseth  it,  that 
it  may  bear  more  fruit "  (John  xv.  i,  2). 

There  is  the  shepherd-care  of  Jesus,  who  intimately 
knows  His  flock,  guides  each  one  of  them,  and  will  suffer 
none  of  them  to  perish — "  He  calleth  his  own  sheep  by 
name,  and  leadeth  them  out "  ;  "  My  sheep  hear  my 
voice,  and  I  know  them,  and  they  follow  roe  j  and  I 


84  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

give  unto  them  eternal  life ;  and  they  shall  never  perish, 
and  no  one  shall  snatch  them  out  of  my  hand  "  (John  x. 
3,  27,  28). 

There  is  the  fellowship  with  the  Father  and  the  Son 
promised  in  the  words,  "If  a  man  love  me,  he  will 
keep  my  word  :  and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and  we 
will  come  unto  him,  and  make  our  abode  with  him " 
(John  xiv.  23). 

There  is  the  fellowship  of  believers  with  one  another 
for  which  Jesus  prays,  **  that  they  may  all  be  one"  Qohn 
xvii.  21). 

There  is  the  answering  of  all  prayer  offered  in  the 
name  of  Jesus — that  is  to  say,  offered  in  the  faith  revealed 
by  Jesus,  and  so  truly  prompted  by  the  Spirit  whom  He 
sends  that  He  Himself  speaks  in  it,  and  we  speak  in  His 
name — *'  I  chose  you  .  .  .  that  whatsoever  ye  shall  ask 
of  the  Father  in  my  name,  he  may  give  it  you"  (John 
XV.  16.  See  also  xiv.  13,  14;  xvi.  23-26;  Mark  xi. 
24). 

There  is  the  blessing  that  comes  of  being  occupied^  like 
Jesus ^  in  the  service  of  man — "  He  that  believeth  on  me, 
the  works  that  I  do  shall  he  do  also  ;  and  greater  works 
than  these  shall  he  do  ;  because  I  go  unto  the  Father  " 
(John  xiv.  12).  *'  He  himself  said.  It  is  more  blessed 
to  give  than  to  receive  "  (Acts  xx.  35). 

Other  great  blessings,  which  may  be  regarded  as  all 
consequent  on  the  gift  and  possession  of  divine  life  are 
freedom^  rest,  peace,  and  full  satisfaction  of  the  heart's 
aspirations.  Life  and  light  are  closely  connected.  It 
was  so  in  the  creation  of  men,  as  St.  John  says,  •'  The 
life  was  the  light  of  men  "  (i.  4).  So  from  the  divine  life 
which  Jesus  came  from  heaven  to  give,  an  inner  light 
springs  up.  Whoever  receives  the  life  has  also  moral 
and  spiritual  light,  which  grows  in  clearness  with  the 
growth  of  the  life.  This  light  agrees  and  coincides  with 
what  Jesus  calls  "  the  truth,"  and  of  which  He  says,  "Ye 
shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free  " 
(John  viii.  32).  Sin  keeps  its  dominion  by  deceit  and 
fascination.     When   the   truth  is   seen,  the  chains  are 


BLESSINGS  OP  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    85 

broken.  The  follower  of  Jesus,  accordingly,  who  receives 
**  the  light  of  life "  (John  viii.  12)  has  also  freedom. 
Again,  as  the  life  which  Jesus  gives  is  divine  and  raises 
our  nature  into  conscious  harmony  of  will  and  affection 
with  God,  the  yoke  of  obedience  to  the  Father,  which 
Jesus  bore  and  invites  us  to  take  upon  us,  becomes,  as  He 
said  it  would  be,  an  easy  yoke  (^latt.  xi.  29,  30).  All 
the  burdens  of  life,  being  known  as  our  heavenly  Father's 
choice  and  appointment,  are  lightened.  That  all  is  well 
with  us  is  assured  beyond  doubt  or  anxiety  by  the  Son's 
revelation  of  the  Father,  and  so  these  great  promises  of 
Jesus  are  fulfilled,  *'  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour 
and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest"  (Matt. 
xi.  28).  **  Peace  I  leave  with  you  ;  my  peace  I  give  unto 
you  "  (John  xiv.  27).  In  a  similar  manner,  as  the  nature 
of  a  true  child  of  God  finds  its  full  satisfaction  in  His 
love  and  in  His  service,  the  gift  of  divine  life  implies  the 
fulfilment  of  the  promise,  **  He  that  cometh  to  me  shall 
not  hunger,  and  he  that  believeth  on  me  shall  never 
thirst  "  (John  vi.  35).  *'  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come 
unto  me,  and  drink"  (John  vii.  37). 

4.  It  will  be  observed  that  in  our  enumeration  of 
blessings  promised  by  Jesus  no  mention  has  yet  been 
made  of  any  of  the  good  things  of  this  earthly  life. 
Does,  then,  our  Lord  make  no  promise  in  regard  to  these 
things?  Does  He  even  condemn  them  as  not  good,  so 
that  there  is  a  merit  in  refusing  them  and  living  an 
ascetic  life,  mortifying  the  flesh  as  much  as  possible  ? 
We  answer,  He  does  not  condemn  them.  He  speaks  of 
the  sunshine  and  the  rain  from  heaven  as  good  gifts  of 
God  (Matt.  v.  45).  He  speaks  of  food  and  raiment  as 
bestowed  by  our  heavenly  Father,  who  knoweth  that 
we  have  need  of  these  things  (Matt.  vi.  26-32).  He 
bids  His  disciples  offer  the  prayer,  **  Give  us  this  day 
our  daily  bread,"  and  in  regard  to  our  temporal  life  we 
are  assured  of  a  providential  care  so  minute  that  the  very 
hairs  of  our  head  are  numbered.  But  earthly  gifts  are 
never  placed  on  the  same  level  of  value  with  spiritual 
There  cannot  be  the  same  certainty  of  promise  about 


86  OUR  LORiyS  TEACHING 

them,  because  they  may  be  withheld  in  order  that  we 
may  gain  spiritually.  Even  in  that  promise  (Mark  xvi. 
17,  18),  "These  signs  shall  follow  them  that  believe 
,  .  .  they  shall  take  up  serpents,  and  if  they  drink  any 
deadly  thing,  it  shall  in  no  wise  hurt  them,"  the  hurt 
that  is  assured  against  may  or  may  not  be  bodily  hurt ; 
the  promise  will  be  kept  if  they  are  protected  from  hurt 
in  their  better  part.  The  promise  in  regard  to  food  and 
clothing,  **  Seek  ye  first  his  kingdom  .  .  .  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you"  (Matt.  vi.  33)  may,  in 
general,  be  literally  fulfilled.  But  nowhere  are  earthly 
riches  promised  as  a  reward  of  fidelity  to  Jesus.  It  is 
indeed  true  that  Christian  uprightness  often  leads  directly 
to  a  man's  promotion  or  wealth,  and  promotion  and  wealth 
so  acquired  are  to  be  received  as  good  gifts  of  God.  But 
very  often,  also.  Christian  fidelity  brings  worldly  loss  ; 
poverty,  not  riches,  may  be  the  higher  testimony  to  that 
fidelity.  We  must  read  with  circumspection  that  promise 
of  Jesus,  plain  and  absolute  as  it  seems — "Verily  I  say 
unto  you.  There  is  no  man  that  hath  left  house,  or 
brethren,  or  sisters,  or  mother,  or  father  "  (or  wife,  Luke 
xviii.  29),  *'  or  children,  or  lands,  for  my  sake,  and  for  the 
gospel's  sake,  but  he  shall  receive  a  hundredfold  now  in  this 
tif?ie,  houseSy  and  brethren^  and  sisters^  and  mothers^  and 
children,  and  lands,  with  persecutions^^  (Mark  x.  29,  30). 
We  must  read  this  with  caution,  remembering  how  often 
the  meaning  of  Jesus  is  deeper  than  the  surface.  Certainly 
this  promise  does  convey  that  to  follow  Him  brings  us 
to  a  greatly  more  blessed  life  even  in  this  present  time 
than  theirs  can  be  who  live  for  the  world,  and  that  losses 
for  Christ's  sake  will  be  splendidly  compensated  even 
here.  But  we  shall  not  expect  the  promise  to  be 
fulfilled  in  the  very  letter.  We  count  it  profane  that 
Mormons  should  argue  in  defence  of  polygamy  by  saying 
that  Jesus  here  and  in  St.  Luke  promised  "manifold 
more "  to  those  who  for  the  Gospel's  sake  forsook  wife 
or  children.  And  if  we  refuse  to  take  this  literally  of 
fathers,  mothers,  or  wives,  need  we  take  it  literally  of 
houses  and  lands?     But  the  promise  is  kept  in  ways 


BLESSINGS  OF  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    87 

which  are  visible  to  faith.  Dr.  Arnold  said  of  his  long 
invalid  sister  that  from  her  devout  unselfishness  she  so 
enjoyed  the  interests  of  life  and  the  beauty  of  the  world 
that  no  one  seemed  to  him  so  fully  to  "  inherit  the 
earth  "  as  she  did.  Is  not  this  a  glimpse  of  how  lands 
lost  for  Christ's  sake  may  be  recompensed  a  hundredfold 
in  this  present  time?  When  St.  Paul  speaks  of  the 
mother  of  Rufus  having  been  a  mother  also  to  him 
(Rom.  xvi.  13),  do  we  not  get  a  glimpse  of  how  those 
who  have  lost  friends  or  been  alienated  from  kindred 
through  their  faithfulness  to  Christ,  have  in  the  welcome 
of  Christian  brethren  and  the  blessings  of  Christian 
fellowship  found  their  lives  enriched  beyond  all  their 
loss?  And  when  the  same  Apostle  could  think  of  so 
many  in  all  the  churches  whom  he  knew  as  his  children 
in  the  faith,  was  not  this  promise  fulfilled  to  him  of 
"children  a  hundredfold  in  this  present  time  "  ?  The 
most  solitary  man  or  woman  ceases  to  be  solitary  who 
enters  into  that  saying  of  Jesus,  "  Whosoever  shall  do 
the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven,  he  is  my 
brother,  and  sister,  and  mother"  (Matt.  xii.  50).  Our 
Lord's  teaching  fully  justifies  these  words  of  St.  Paul's  old 
age  and  ripe  experience,  "  Godliness  is  profitable  for  all 
things,  having  promise  of  the  life  which  now  is,  and  of 
that  which  is  to  come"  (l  Tim.  iv.  8).  But  the  promise 
of  the  life  which  now  is  must  not  be  understood  of  mere 
earthly  gain  or  glory  or  pleasure,  and  the  greatly  blessed 
in  this  present  time  have  been,  for  the  most  part,  men 
and  women  who  had  little  of  these  things  and  were  not 
dependent  on  them,  being  rich  in  "the  life  which  is  life 
indeed"  (i  Tim.  vi.  19). 

5.  The  Gospel  has  been  assailed  by  some  in  our  day 
on  account  of  that  feature  of  it  with  which  we  began  this 
chapter,  that  the  great  hope  and  promise  of  Jesus  is  for 
the  life  to  come.  Preachers  of  the  Gospel  have  been 
scornfully  spoken  of  as  men  who  preached  about  heaven 
when  they  should  have  been  seeking  the  gocd  of  their 
fellow-men  in  this  present  life,  which  (it  is  said)  is  the 
only  life  of  which  we  have  any  certainty.     We  might 


88  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

answer  in  the  words  of  a  French  writer:  "Wonderful 
gospel,  which,  in  preparing  us  for  an  unseen  and  eternal 
life,  so  greatly  blesses  us  in  this  ! "  No  influence  has 
so  advanced  the  good  of  men,  even  in  this  world,  as 
Christianity.  But  we  rather  reply.  How  great  a  loss  to 
men  it  would  be  if  in  this  life  only  we  had  hope ;  if  we 
had  to  go  back  to  the  idea  of  man's  absolute  mortality, 
which  held  the  ground  among  Greeks  and  Romans  at 
the  time  when  the  Gospel  began  to  be  preached  to  them  ! 
What  could  make  up  to  men  for  all  that  consolation  in 
life's  sorrows  and  separations  which  has  been  drawn 
from  the  thought  and  hope  of  Heaven  since  Jesus  came, 
Himself  the  "  Divine  Word,"  which  the  friend  of  Socrates 
longed  for,  to  assure  us  of  a  life  to  come  ?  ^  \\Tiat  heart- 
rendings  have  been  healed,  what  sweet  anticipations 
nourished,  by  that  promise  of  Jesus,  so  gracious  and 
distinct,  in  which  the  homeliness  of  heaven,  its  width 
and  room,  its  fitness  for  our  abiding,  and  the  actual 
preparation  in  it  for  our  renewed  and  unending  life  and 
for  the  fellowships  of  that  life,  are  assured  to  us  by  His 
truth  and  by  the  contagion  of  His  calm  certainty — *'  In 
my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions  ;  if  it  were  not  so, 
I  would  have  told  you  ;  for  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you.  And  if  I  go  and  prepare  a  place  for  you,  I  come 
again,  and  will  receive  you  unto  myself;  that  where  I  am, 
there  ye  may  be  also  "  (John  xiv.  2,  3). 

Another  assault  on  our  Lord's  teaching  has  been 
made  on  the  ground  that  the  hope  of  eternal  reward 
which  He  gives  makes  men's  virtue  selfish,  and  so  lowers 
it  or  destroys  it  as  virtue.  But,  we  answer,  could  we 
justify  the  government  of  the  world  if  blessing  did  not 
follow  upon  righteousness  ?  And  does  virtue  remain  itself, 
and  praiseworthy,  only  in  a  universe  the  government  of 
which  is  hostile  to  it  or  indifferent?  We  answer  also 
that,  since  the  blessings  promised  in  the  Gospel  are 
spiritual,  the  reward  which  Jesus  offers  to  goodness  is 
primarily  this  unselfish  one,  the  attainment  of  perfection 
in  goodness  itself. 

I  Plato,  PhcedOf  xxxv. 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  HIS  O  WN  DEA  TH    89 


CHAPTER  X 

HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT   HIS   OWN  DEATH 

Present  need  for  inquiring  into  this — Results  of  inquiry.  I. 
The  long  shadow  cast  before  by  His  death  shows  its  high 
significance.  II.  According  to  His  own  indications  of 
that  significance  He  was,  in  His  death — i.  A  martyr  in 
the  cause  of  truth — 2.  A  martyr  in  the  cause  of  love 
— 3.  More  than  mart)T  ;  [a)  Redeemer,  [b)  Sin  offering 
and  ground  of  human  forgiveness — Confirmations,  and 
answers  to  objection. 

'X*HE  death  of  Jesus  is  the  event  in  His  earthly  history 
■■■  which  has  been  cherished  above  all  others  in  the 
memory  of  His  Church.  In  the  full  narratives  of  all  the 
four  evangelists,  in  the  writings  of  the  apostles,  in 
the  preaching  of  missionaries,  in  the  devout  thought  of 
Christian  souls,  nothing  has  received  so  great  place  or 
significance  as  the  story  of  the  Cross  of  Christ.  If  we 
were  asked  to  name  the  power  of  the  Gospel,  by  which 
It  has  won  its  way  in  the  world,  and  by  the  loss  of  which 
it  would  be,  as  it  were,  disarmed,  we  should  reply  in  one 
word,  the  Cross. 

In  this  chapter  we  are  to  inquire  what  Jesus  Himself 
taught  about  His  death,  and,  in  particular,  what  mean- 
ing and  significance  He  attributed  to  it.  This  inquiry 
has  become  the  more  necessary  because  some,  who  believe 
that  Jesus  manifested  God's  mercy  to  sinners,  have  ceased 
to  believe  that  His  death  was  an  atonement  for  men's 
sins,  and  the  ground  of  their  forgiveness.  Those  who 
are  of  this  opinion  remind  us  that  we  are  called  upon  to 
forgive  a  wrong  done  to  us  if  the  wrong-doer  is  penitent. 


90  067?  LORD'S  TEACHING 

although  there  be  no  atonement  made  for  the  wrong, 
and  God  (they  urge),  being  infinitely  more  generous  than 
we,  will  do  no  less  Himself.  They  count  an  atonement 
unnecessary,  and  even  derogatory  to  the  grace  of  God. 
There  is  therefore  serious  reason  for  inquiring  what 
is  the  full  teaching  of  Jesus  on  this  subject — a  subject 
which  is  of  so  great  concern  to  all  Christian  people. 

It  is  not  meant  that  we  must  limit  our  belief  about 
the  death  of  Jesus  to  what  He  Himself  taught  during 
His  earthly  life.  We  cannot  assume  that  this  is  all  His 
mind  about  it,  in  face  of  His  well-known  words,  *'  I  have 
yet  many  things  to  say  unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear 
them  now.  Howbeit  when  he,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is 
come,  he  shall  guide  you  into  all  the  truth  :  for  he  shall 
not  speak  from  himself;  but  what  things  soever  he  shall 
hear,  these  shall  he  speak"  (John  xvi.  12,  13).  These 
words  justify  the  belief  that  what  the  apostles  taught  by 
the  Spirit  after  Jesus  had  gone  into  heaven  is,  in  a  true 
sense,  part  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  But  it  is  of  import- 
ance for  us  to  assure  ourselves  that  Jesus'  own  recorded 
teaching  and  that  of  the  apostles  ai-e  in  harmony,  and 
that  the  latter  has  unmistakable  roots  in  the  former. 

On  first  examining  with  this  view  the  pages  of  the 
Gospels  we  may  be  surprised  to  find  Jesus  speak  so 
little  about  the  efficacy  of  His  death  for  our  salvation.  It 
has  pained  some,  and  almost  shaken  their  confidence,  to 
find  that  saving  efficacy  not  nearly  so  frequent  a  subject 
in  Jesus'  own  teaching  as  in  the  letters  of  His  apostles. 
His  own  doctrine  about  His  death  seems  much  less  full 
and  explicit  than  theirs.  But,  on  second  thoughts,  and 
when  we  compare  Him  with  other  great  men,  the 
remarkable  thing  rather  is  that  He  says  so  much  of  His 
death  by  anticipation,  and  attaches  so  much  significance 
to  it.  It  is  not  a  usual  thing  for  a  great  teacher  to  make 
his  own  death  his  subject ;  and  that  Jesus  should  have 
done  so  is  the  more  striking  that  His  disciples  could  so 
little  believe  it,  or  bear  to  hear  of  it,  before  it  happened 
(Matt.  xvi.  22  ;  Mark  ix.  32).  We  believe  there  is 
enough,  even  in  Jesus'  own  teaching  before  His  death,  to 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  HIS  O  WN  DBA  TH    91 

show  that  it  had  great  divine  significance,  to  indicate  the 
nature  of  that  significance,  and  to  assure  us  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  apostles  is  rooted  in  that  of  their  Master. 
I.  The  importance  of  the  event  in  the  thought  of 
Jesus  appears  first  from  the  shadow  that  it  cast  before  on 
His  whole  ministry.  Even  early  in  His  ministry  we  find 
serious  reference  to  it,  as  if  it  was  from  the  beginning  the 
dark  background  of  His  prospect.  It  was  early  in  His 
ministry  that  He  referred  to  it  in  the  words  which  follow  : 
*'  Can  the  sons  of  the  bride-chamber  fast,  while  the 
bridegroom  is  with  them  ?  .  .  .  But  the  days  will  come, 
when  the  bridegroom  shall  be  taken  away  from  them  " 
(Mark  ii.  19,  20).  It  was  early  in  His  ministry  that  He 
made  enigmatic  reference  to  it  in  the  words,  "  Destroy 
this  temple,  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up  "  (John 
ii.  19).  It  was  early  in  His  ministry  that  He  said  to 
Nicodemus,  "As  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the 
wilderness,  even  so  must  the  Son  of  man  be  lifted  up  : 
that  whosoever  believeth  may  in  him  have  eternal  life  " 
(John  iii.  14,  15).  Already,  we  see,  the  death  of  Jesus 
casts  its  shadow  on  His  own  spirit,  and  already  He  teaches 
that  there  is  a  divine  necessity  for  it  in  God's  plan  of  His 
earthly  course,  and  in  God's  plan  of  salvation  for  men. 
When  the  crisis  of  His  ministry  in  Galilee  arrived  the  same 
thoughts  were  implied  in  the  emphatic  words,  "Except 
ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  man  and  drink  his  blood, 
ye  have  not  life  in  yourselves  "  (John  vi.  53).  On  the 
mount  of  transfiguration,  when  the  inner  glory  of  Jesus 
became  an  outwardly  visible  glory,  and  heavenly  com- 
panions talked  with  Him,  the  subject  of  their  converse 
was  "  His  decease  which  he  was  about  to  accomplish  at 
Jerusalem"  (Luke  ix.  31).  From  about  this  time  the 
shadow  of  His  death  darkened  upon  Jesus  in  anticipation, 
and  it  became  habitual  with  Him  to  tell  His  disciples  that  it 
must  befall  Him,  and  to  prepare  them  for  the  sad  details 
of  it.  '*  From  that  time  began  Jesus  to  shew  vmto  his  dis- 
ciples, how  that  he  must  go  untojerusalem,  and  suffer  many 
things  of  the  elders  and  chief  priests  and  scribes,  and  be 
killed,  and  the  third  day  be  raised  up"  (Matt.  xvL  21). 


92  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

•'  He  steadfastly  set  his  face  to  go  to  Jerusalem"  (Luke 
ix.  51)'  Obviously  He  was  under  pressure  of  a  great 
sense  of  duty  in  view  of  what  He  must  suffer  and  would 
accomplish  by  His  suffering.  Once  He  was  going  before 
His  disciples  in  the  way,  and  with  such  purpose  and 
emotion  written  on  His  countenance  that  "  they  were 
amazed  ;  and  they  that  followed  were  afraid  "  (Mark  x. 
32).  Jesus  took  the  twelve  yet  again  and  said,  '*  Behold, 
we  go  up  to  Jerusalem  ;  and  the  Son  of  man  shall  be 
delivered  unto  the  chief  priests  and  the  scribes;  and  they 
shall  condemn  him  to  death,  and  shall  deliver  him  unto 
the  Gentiles  :  and  they  shall  mock  him,  and  shall  spit 
upon  him,  and  shall  scourge  him,  and  shall  kill  him  ; 
and  after  three  days  he  shall  rise  again "  (Mark  x. 
33>  34)'  Another  saying  of  this  time  is,  "I  have  a 
baptism  to  be  baptized  with  ;  and  how  am  I  straitened 
till  it  be  accomplished  ! "  (Luke  xii.  50).  We  cannot 
doubt  that  here  He  means  His  death  and  the  load  He 
was  feeling  in  the  anticipation  of  it.  These  expressions 
thicken  as  the  time  advances,  and  drop  from  Him  as 
at  the  feast  at  Bethany,  *'  She  hath  anointed  my  body 
aforehand  for  the  burying  "  (Mark  xiv.  8).  In  the  whole 
of  the  farewell  scene  and  discourses  recorded  by  St. 
John  (in  chapters  xiii.-xvi.)  His  approaching  "hour" 
forms  the  very  atmosphere  of  the  thought,  solemnising 
all ;  but  He  Himself  no  longer  feels  what  is  impend- 
ing as  shadow^  rather  as  glory.  All  struggle  being 
over,  and  the  issue  being  fully  accepted,  He  thinks  of 
it  as  virtually  accomplished;  and  since  "perfect  self- 
sacrifice,  even  to  death,  issuing  in  the  overthrow  of  death, 
is  the  truest  glory,"  He  cries,  "Now  is  the  Son  of  man 
glorified,  and  God  is  glorified  in  him"  (John  xiii.  31). 
The  shadow  returns  at  its  very  deepest  in  the  garden  of 
Gethsemane,  and  is  again  dispelled  by  the  thrice-uttered 
prayer,  "  O  my  Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass 
away  from  me  :  nevertheless,  not  as  I  will,  but  as  thou 
wilt"  (Matt.  xxvi.  39). 

This  review  is  of  itself  enough  to  bear  us  out  in  the 
belief  that,  in  the  thought  and  teaching  of  Jesus  Himself, 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  HIS  O  WN  DEA  TH    93 

His  death  was  of  the  very  highest  significance.  It  was 
the  goal  of  His  life's  effort.  *'For  this  cause,"  He  says, 
•*  came  I  unto  this  hour  "  (John  xii.  27).  The  actual 
significance  of  it  may  not  be  explicit  in  any  of  the  words  we 
have  quoted,  but  they  imply  a  meaning  in  it  quite  beyond 
that  which  belongs  to  death  in  the  case  of  other  men.  No 
other  man  could  have  spoken  of  his  death  as  Jesus  does, 
or  given  it  that  place  in  the  aim  and  purpose  of  his  life 
which  He  gives  it.  And  in  instituting  the  Lord's  Supper 
as  a  feast  in  memory  of  Himself  till  He  come  again,  and 
choosing  that  one  event  to  be  showed  forth  in  it,  Jesus 
gives  His  death  an  importance  for  us  surpassing  all  else 
in  His  earthly  course,  even  surpassing  the  marvel  of  His 
birth. 

H.  The  place  thus  given  to  His  death  in  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  is  so  great  that  we  cannot  avoid  asking  what 
is  the  value  and  significance  of  it,  and  inquiring  what 
indications  He  gives  of  that  significance. 

I.  The  very  least  that  can  be  concluded  from  His 
teaching  is  that,  in  dying,  He  was  a  martyr  in  the 
cause  of  truth.  All  who  in  this  evil  world  are  faith- 
ful to  truth  in  a  high  degree,  provoke  hostility  by 
their  faithfulness,  and  suffer  for  it.  Yet  truth  has 
this  right  and  this  claim  on  men,  that  they  should  be 
faithful  to  it  even  unto  death.  Thousands  have  been 
thus  faithful.  Jesus  was  ;  and  this  is  practically  all  the 
significance  that  many  Unitarians  see  in  His  death. 
They  explain  His  forethought  about  it,  and  His  clear 
prophecies  of  it,  as  just  what  might  be  expected  from  a 
good  and  discerning  man  who  saw  the  force  of  the  evil 
currents  of  His  time,  knew  the  hatred  that  was  in  the 
breasts  of  the  Jewish  leaders,  and  was  conscious  of  His 
own  unyielding  faithfulness.  Certainly  Jesus  Himself 
does  recognise  His  death  as — like  the  deaths  of  the  old 
prophets — that  of  a  martyr  to  the  truth.  "  It  cannot 
be,"  He  said  in  reference  to  Himself,  "that  a  prophet 
perish  out  of  Jerusalem "  (Luke  xiii.  33).  But  the 
pressure  with  which  the  forethought  of  His  death  often 
weighed  upon  Jesus,  and  the  divine  necessity  implied  in 


94  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

the  ^^  must  suffer,"  ^^  must  be  lifted  up,"  do  not  seem  to 
be  accounted  for,  if  He  was  only  to  be,  as  the  prophets 
had  been,  a  martyr  to  truth. 

2.  He  was  further,  in  His  death,  a  martyr  in  the 
cause  of  love.  It  is  a  law  of  human  life  that  no  great 
service  can  be  done  by  us  to  others  except  at  cost  to 
ourselves.  We  must  deny  ourselves,  we  must  sacrifice 
our  own  pleasure  or  gain  or  glory,  if  we  would 
be  profitable  in  the  world.  Except  we  have  love 
enough  to  give  up  what  is  precious  to  ourselves,  we 
cannot  do  good  ;  and  the  greatly  fruitful  lives  have  been 
those  in  which  there  was  a  long  death  to  self.  The 
world  advances  by  this  law  of  sacrifice.  "  There  was 
never  a  country  cleared  for  civilisation,  and  purified  of 
its  swamps  and  forests,  but  the  first  settlers  paid  the 
penalty  of  that  which  their  successors  enjoy.  There 
never  was  a  victory  won,  but  the  conquerors  who  took 
possession  of  the  conquest  passed  over  the  bodies  of  the 
noblest  slain,  who  died  that  they  might  win."i  Now 
Jesus  Himself  saw  His  death  in  the  light  of  this  law 
that  progress  is  to  be  won  for  men  by  the  sacrifice  of 
self.  He  so  expounded  it  by  an  analogy  from  inanimate 
nature :  **  Except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  earth 
and  die,  it  abideth  by  itself  alone ;  but  if  it  die,  it 
beareth  much  fruit "  (John  xii.  24).  In  willing  obedience 
to  this  law,  which  reigns  both  in  the  moral  and  in  the 
natural  world.  He  yielded  Himself  up.  He  was  sustained 
and  cheered  by  anticipating  the  **much  fruit"  of  which 
through  death  He  would  be  the  seed.  He  taught  also, 
and  leant  upon,  the  companion  truth,  that  the  path  of 
self-sacrifice  is  that  of  truest  personal  gain  to  a  moral 
being,  as  would  assuredly  be  made  manifest  in  the  eternal 
world.  Of  all  the  sayings  of  Jesus,  this  alone  is  re- 
ported by  each  of  the  four  evangelists — the  paradox  of 
self-sacrifice — **  He  that  loveth  his  life  loseth  it ;  and  he 
that  hateth  his  life  in  this  world  shall  keep  it  unto  life 
eternal "  (John  xii.  25.  See  also  Matt.  x.  39  ;  xvi.  25  ; 
Mark  viii.  35  ;  Luke  ix.  24 ;  xvii.  33). 

1  F.  W.  Robertson,  Sertnons,  I.  (ix.) 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  HIS  O IVN  DEA  TH   95 

3.  So  far  as  we  have  yet  traced  the  significance  of 
the  death  of  Jesus,  it  is  not  singular,  but  accords  entirely 
with  general  laws  of  human  experience  and  influence. 
His  life  and  death  constitute  together  the  most  splendid 
example  of  the  power  for  good  that  resides  in  self-sacrifice. 
But  there  are  expressions  that  dropped  from  Him  dur- 
ing the  time  when  His  death  was  impending  which 
indicate  His  own  private  thought  about  it,  and  give  it 
such  a  meaning  and  value  as  make  it  quite  tran- 
scend even  the  most  truly  self-sacrificing  deaths  of  other 
men. 

(a)  One  of  these  sayings  of  Jesus  is  the  following : 
"The  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but 
to  minister,  and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many " 
(Matt.  XX.  28).  He  had  before  said,  "The  Son  of  man 
came  ...  to  save  that  which  was  lost "  (Luke  xix.  10). 
Here  He  looks  forward  to  doing  this  by  redemption — by 
giving  His  own  life  in  exchange  for  that  of  others.  The 
actual  words  used  by  Jesus  are  literally,  **  A  ransom 
instead  of  many."  '*  Ransom  "  was  an  idea  very  familiar 
to  those  to  whom  Jesus  was  speaking.  That  men  should 
be  liberated  from  slavery,  or  from  under  sentence  of 
condemnation,  on  account  of  the  payment  of  a  sufficient 
ransom  was  a  thing  readily  understood.  And  we  can- 
not doubt  that  the  slavery  or  condemnation  from  which 
the  "  many  "  needed  to  be  delivered  was  that  of  sin,  or 
that  in  Jesus'  view  His  death  would  be  the  sufficient 
price  of  that  redemption.  The  hearers  of  Jesus  could 
not  but  understand  the  "ransom"  according  to  the  use 
of  the  same  word  in  such  a  passage  as  Exodus  xxx. 
II -16,  in  which  we  read  how  for  each  soul,  when 
numbered  and  recorded  by  name  within  the  old  cove- 
nant, a  "  ransom  "  was  paid — "  to  make  atonement  for 
your  souls."  Such  a  ransom  Jesus  expresses  His  purpose 
to  pay  in  giving  up  His  life.  So  He  interprets  that 
supreme  act,  which  He  declares  to  be  of  His  own  free 
will — "  I  lay  down  my  life  for  the  sheep.  .  .  .  No  one 
taketh  it  away  from  me,  but  I  lay  it  down  of  myself" 
(John  X.    15,   18).     Not  without  ground,  then,  in  the 


96  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

teaching  of  Jesus  Himself,  have  St.  Paul  and  the  other 
apostles  written  in  terms  of  great  assurance  of  "the 
redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus "  (Rom.  iii.  24),  of 
our  being  ** bought  with  a  price"  (i  Cor.  vi.  20),  and 
*'  redeemed  .  .  .  with  precious  blood  .  .  .  even  the  blood 
of  Christ"  (i  Pet.  i.  18,  19).  Not  without  ground  in 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  does  all  Christendom  speak  of 
Him  as  "  The  Redeemer,"  and  believe  that  by  His  death 
something  has  been  done  to  liberate  us  from  sin,  which 
no  martyrdoms  of  holy  men  are  ever  thought  to  effect. 

{b)  Another  saying  of  Jesus,  still  more  explicit  in 
regard  to  the  value,  power,  and  significance  of  His 
death,  was  uttered  when  He  instituted  the  Lord's  Supper. 
As  He  gave  the  cup  to  His  disciples,  He  said  :  ''This 
cup  is  the  new  covenant  in  my  blood,  even  that  which  is 
poured  out  for  you"  (Luke  xxii.  20).  "This  is  my 
blood  of  the  covenant,  which  is  shed  for  many  unto 
remission  of  sins  "  (Matt.  xxvi.  28).  That  Jesus  should 
speak  of  a  new  covenant  would  be  no  strange  thing  to 
His  disciples,  familiar  as  they  were  with  the  promise  in 
Jeremiah  (xxxi.  31),  that  in  days  to  come  God  would  make 
a  new  covenant  with  His  people.  Nor  would  "  blood  of 
the  covenant "  surprise  them,  for  the  first  covenant  had 
been  ratified  by  blood,  as  we  read  in  Exodus  (xxiv.  5-8) 
that  they  offered  burnt  offerings,  and  the  blood  was 
sprinkled,  half  of  it  on  the  altar  and  half  of  it  on  the  people. 
The  disciples  of  Jesus  would  understand  their  receiving 
the  cup  to  be  in  place  of  that  sprinkling  of  blood  on  the 
people,  by  which  their  entrance  into  the  first  covenant 
had  been  signified.  If,  now,  Jesus  had  said  only,  "  This 
cup  is  the  new  covenant  in  my  blood,"  we  might  have 
felt  bound  to  interpret  His  death  as  a  burnt  offering  (as 
in  Exodus  xxiv.  5);  and  this  would  have  left  us  in  doubt 
whether  it  had  any  propitiatory  value,  for  burnt  offerings 
in  the  Old  Testament  do  not  usually  imply  expiation, 
but  express  simply  the  offerer's  consecration  to  God. 
But  Jesus  says  more  than  "This  cup  is  the  new  cove- 
nant in  my  blood,"  He  adds,  "which  is  shed  for 
many   unto   remission   of  sins."     In   these   words    He 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  HIS  O  WN  DEA  TH    97 

evidently  declares  His  death  to  be  a  sin  ofTcring,  and 
His  blood  to  be  an  expiation  of  sin.  He  evidently 
regards  the  death  in  which  He  is  about  to  offer  Him- 
self without  spot  to  God  as  a  sufficient  ground  on  which 
God  can,  consistently  with  Himself  and  with  eternal 
righteousness,  bestow  forgiveness  on  sinners.  Here 
again,  accordingly — by  these  words  in  which  He  inter- 
prets His  death  beforehand  and  links  forgiveness  to  it — 
Jesus  gives  most  certain  ground  for  what  His  apostles 
teach  with  such  emphasis  and  joy,  of  "redemption 
through  his  blood,  the  forgiveness  of  our  trespasses " 
(Eph.  i.  7)  ;  of  our  '*  being  now  justified  by  his 
blood"  (Rom.  v.  9);  of  our  being  while  enemies  "re- 
conciled to  God  through  the  death  of  his  Son"  (Rom.  v. 
10) ;  and  of  Jesus  being  "  the  propitiation  for  our  sins  ; 
and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  whole  world  " 
(i  John  ii.  2). 

This  conclusion  is  in  harmony  with  the  general  belief 
of  Christian  people  from  the  beginning,  that  there  is 
something  very  awful  in  sin  ;  that  before  sin  can  be  for- 
given there  is  something  very  awful  to  be  got  over  (if 
we  may  so  say)  in  God,  and  in  the  moral  order  of  the 
universe  which  is  centred  in  God's  character  ;  and  that 
the  offering  which  Jesus  made  of  Himself  in  death  avails 
gloriously  to  meet  this  necessity.  Such  a  conclusion  is 
in  harmony,  also,  with  the  great  place  which  we  have 
seen  His  death  had  in  the  thoughts  of  Jesus  all  through 
His  ministry,  and  with  His  saying  in  regard  to  it,  "For 
this  cause  came  I  unto  this  hour." 

Can  we  now  answer  the  objection  to  which  we  re- 
ferred at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  that  God  might 
be  expected  to  forgive  sins,  as  we  are  called  to  forgive 
wrong  done  to  us,  without  "atonement"?  Two  things 
are  overlooked  in  this  objection.  First,  God  does  far 
more  in  forgiving  than  we  do.  We  put  away  our  re- 
sentment, but  we  cannot  clear  from  guilt.  A  woman 
wronged  by  her  husband  may  on  her  death-bed  forgive 
him  freely  all  he  has  done,  but  his  guilt  is  not  thereby 
removed.     He  is  still  liable  to  judgment  for  wrong  and 


98  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

failure  in  duty.^  When  God  forgives  any  one,  He  also 
removes  the  guilt.  The  sinner  is  no  longer  liable  to 
the  punishment  that  awaits  sin.  Some  who  have  per- 
ceived how  great  a  thing  this  is  have  denied  that  it  can 
be.  They  conclude  from  the  order  of  nature  that  a  man 
cannot  be  separated  from  his  sin  or  the  consequences  of 
it.  It  is  indeed  a  miracle  of  grace  that  this  should 
happen ;  and  we  need  not  wonder  at  something  being 
first  required,  which  we  call  "atonement."  But  from 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  we  conclude  both  that  true  for- 
giveness is  possible,  God  removing  our  transgressions 
from  us  as  far  as  the  east  is  from  the  west,  and  that 
this  cannot  be  done  on  the  easy  terms  on  which  one 
sinner  may  put  away  resentment  against  another. 

In  the  objection  with  which  we  are  now  dealing  it  is 
also  overlooked  that  God,  out  of  His  infinite  mercy,  has 
without  atonement  dismissed  His  resentment  against  our 
sinful  race  ;  for  it  is  He  who  sent  His  Son  into  the 
world,  and  so  provided  the  atonement.  All  that  the 
most  forgiving  among  human  souls  can  do  without 
atonement  He  has  done,  and  this  besides,  which  is  un- 
speakably more  and  greater.  The  propitiation  of  the 
Cross,  while  meeting  a  divine  requirement,  magnifies 
the  forgiving  love  of  God  by  which  it  was  provided. 

One  confirmation  of  the  belief  that  our  Lord's  offer- 
ing of  Himself  is  a  propitiation  for  sins  cannot  be 
omitted — that  of  experience.  This  belief  has  been  in 
all  the  Christian  ages  profoundly  welcome  to  human 
souls  when  deeply  conscious  of  sin,  and  such  souls  have 
attained  by  the  iDlood  of  Jesus  a  present  peace,  a  near 
access  to  God,  and  an  enduring  confidence  in  the 
divine  mercy,  which  are  attained  through  no  other  faith. 
This  will  be  manifest  to  any  who  will  study  the  Christian 
hymns  that  are  of  widest  acceptance,  and  observe  the 
peace  and  joy  connected  in  them  with  the  Cross  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  "  in  whose  death  our  sins  are 
dead." 

1  Dr.  Dale,  Christian  Doctritu,  p.  343. 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 


99 


CHAPTER  XI 

HIS  TEACHING   ABOUT  THE   HOLY   SPIRIT 

Permanence  and  growth  of  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  due  to 
His  sending  "another  Paraclete."  i.  This  Paraclete 
(imperfectly  named  Comforter)  is  a  Person — He  is  a 
divine  Person.  2.  He  is  a  Teacher  of  the  truth,  and 
gives  inward  certainty  in  regard  to  it.  3.  Not  Him- 
self, but  Jesus,  is  the  subject  and  source  of  His  teach- 
ing— Though  in  us,  He  does  not  efface  our  personality. 
4.  He  brings  us  into  communion  with  Jesus.  5. 
Through  Him  the  divine  hfe  is  imparted — Accord- 
ingly :  {a)  by  Him  we  are  enabled  to  enter  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  [b)  to  fulfil  the  righteousness 
Jesus  taught ;  [c)  the  means  of  grace  are  efficacious, 
and  {d )  the  Gospel  advances  in  the  world — This  g^eat 
gift  of  the  Spirit  is  associated  with  the  Gospel  only. 

'X*HE  great  subject  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  being  the 
■'■  kingdom  of  God,  and  the  great  purpose  of  His 
coming  being  to  set  up  the  kingdom  of  God  among  men, 
let  us  hear  some  words  of  a  great  man  in  regard  to  His 
success.  Napoleon  Bonaparte  is  not  one  whom  we 
would  readily  quote  in  matters  of  religion.  But  he  set 
up  a  mighty  kingdom  among  men,  and  the  genius  by 
which  he  accomplished  this  was  as  great  probably  as 
ever  showed  itself  in  the  world.  So  the  opinion  we 
shall  quote  has  undoubted  value.  **  I  search  in  vain  in 
history,"  he  said,  '*to  find  the  like  of  Jesus  Christ,  or 
anything  which  can  approach  the  Gospels.  You  speak 
of  Caesar,  of  Alexander,  of  their  conquests,  and  of  the 
enthusiasm  which  they  enkindled  in  the  hearts  of  their 
soldiers ;  but  can  you  conceive  of  a  dead  man  making 


100  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

conquests,  with  an  army  faithful  and  entirely  devoted  to 
his  memory?  My  armies  have  forgotten  me  even  while 
living,  as  the  Carthaginian  army  forgot  Hannibal.  Such 
is  our  power  !  A  single  battle  crushes  us,  and  adversity 
scatters  our  friends.  .  .  .  Alexander,  Caesar,  Charle- 
magne, and  myself  founded  empires.  But  on  what  did 
we  rest  the  creations  of  our  genius  ?  Upon  force.  Jesus 
Christ  alone  founded  His  empire  upon  love ;  and,  at  this 
hour,  millions  of  men  would  die  for  Him." 

This  is  a  testimony  to  the  reality,  the  growth,  and 
the  permanence,  through  ages  and  millenniums,  of  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  which  recalls  the  words  of  the 
Psalmist — "  Thy  kingdom  is  an  everlasting  kingdom, 
and  thy  dominion  endureth  throughout  all  generations." 

Why  has  this  characteristic  of  permanence  belonged 
to  the  kingdom  set  up  by  Jesus  ?  Great  earthly  king- 
doms have  been  set  up  by  powerful  men,  but  in  more  or 
fewer  generations  they  have  crumbled ;  the  power  by 
which  they  were  established  was  gone  with  the  great 
men  who  founded  them,  and  they  had  not  enough  of 
internal  cohesion  to  endure.  The  course  of  the  kingdom 
of  Jesus  has  been  quite  different.  It  began  with  but  a 
few ;  in  the  time  of  its  Founder  it  was  like  a  grain  of 
mustard  seed.  But,  as  He  intended  and  foretold,  it  has 
grown  into  a  great  tree,  and  it  is  still  spreading  forth  its 
branches.  What  is  the  secret  of  this  permanence  and 
growth?  The  chief  answer  to  this  question  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  after  Jesus  had  gone  from  this 
world,  He  sent  another  in  His  place.  A  great  man 
may  found  a  kingdom,  but  he  cannot  provide  successors 
like  himself.  Jesus  promised  and  sent  "another  Para- 
clete," an  expression  which  implies  that  He  was  Himself 
a  Paraclete,  and  that  the  other  would  supply  His  place. 
Nay,  the  other  Paraclete  would  do  more  and  better  than 
supply  His  place.  His  disciples  would  find  it  a  gain  to  lose 
Himself  if  thereby  they  had  the  other.  "It  is  expedient 
for  you  that  I  go  away  :  for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Para- 
clete will  not  come  unto  you  ;  but  if  I  go,  I  will  send 
him  unto  you"  (John  xvi,  7,  margin).     Let  us   study 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT   loi 

what  Jesus  teaches  about  this  Paraclete,  His  successor 
and  substitute,  whom  He  calls  also  "The  Spirit  of 
truth"  and  '*The  Holy  Spirit." 

I .  From  the  teaching  of  Jesus  we  can  have  no  doubt 
that  the  other  Paraclete  is  a  person.  Again  and  again 
Jesus  speaks  in  this  fashion — **  He  shall  teach  you  all 
things";  ^^  He  shall  glorify  me."  And  personality  is 
implied  in  the  title  "  Paraclete,"  which  in  our  Authorised 
Version  is  imperfectly  translated  "Comforter."  The 
word  means  "one  who  is  called  upon  to  stand  by  us, 
especially  in  difficulty  or  conflict."  It  is,  accordingly,  the 
word  for  an  advocate,  and  is  so  used  of  Jesus  Himself 
in  I  John  ii.  i,  where  it  is  said — "We  have  a  Paraclete 
(advocate)  with  the  Father,  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous." 
But  as  the  word  means  "  one  who  in  any  circumstances 
by  his  presence  makes  strong,"  it  may  be  translated  also 
Helper,  Cheerer,  Encourager.  It  designates  one  who  by 
his  companionship  supports  in  duty,  as  well  as  comforts 
in  sorrow.  And  on  account  of  the  emphasis  with  which 
Jesus  represents  Him  as  taking  part  with  the  disciples 
against  a  world  in  its  very  nature  hostile,  it  may  well  be 
translated  also  Succourer  or  Champion.  In  the  foreview 
which  Jesus  gives  so  distinctly  of  the  hostility  of  the 
world  in  John  xv.  i8-xvi.  ii,  and  of  the  conflict  and 
witness  against  the  world  which  His  disciples  would 
have  to  maintain,  the  Paraclete  appears  as  a  Champion 
whose  intervention  in  the  conflict  would  be  decisive. 
"  AMien  the  Paraclete  is  come  ...  he  shall  bear 
witness  of  me."  "And  he,  when  he  is  come,  will 
convict  the  world  in  respect  of  sin,  and  of  righteousness, 
and  of  judgement  :  of  sin,  because  they  believe  not  on 
me ;  of  righteousness,  because  I  go  to  the  Father,  and 
ye  behold  me  no  more  ;  of  judgement,  because  the  prince 
of  this  world  hath  been  judged"  (John  xvi.  8-11). 
The  intervention  of  the  Paraclete  is  "  robust  and 
energetic,"  ^  even  more  than  soothing  or  comforting. 

It  is  implied  also  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  that  the 
Other  Paraclete  is  a  divine  person.  Jesus  could  not  well 
"^  Dale,  Christian  Doctritu,  p.  130. 


102  OUR  LORLfS  TEACHING 

say  that  it  was  expedient  for  Himself  to  go  away,  if  His 
substitute  were  less  than  divine.  Nor  could  He  have 
taught  that  "whosoever  shall  speak  a  word  against  the 
Son  of  man,  it  shall  be  forgiven  him  :  but  whosoever  shall 
speak  against  the  Holy  Spirit,  it  shall  not  be  forgiven 
him,  neither  in  this  world,  nor  in  that  which  is  to  come  " 
(Matt.  xii.  32),  Nor  again  could  He  have  joined  "the 
Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,"  as  He  has  done 
in  the  formula  of  baptism  (Matt,  xxviii.  19),  if  all  three 
were  not  divine. 

2.  Another  great  feature  of  this  Paraclete  whom 
Jesus  promised  to  send  is  that  He  is  a  Teacher^  a 
heavenly  Teacher.  The  truth  is  His  great  instrument 
of  succour  to  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  and  so  He  is  again 
and  again  called  "  The  Spirit  of  truth."  And  how  do  we 
reconcile  this  with  the  claim  of  Jesus — •*  I  am  the  truth," 
"  I  am  the  light  of  the  world."  Jesus,  we  understand, 
is  the  great  Revealer  of  God,  and  of  the  truth  of  God 
which  is  needful  for  man's  salvation.  How,  then,  can 
there  be  another  Revealer?  Why  should  Jesus  say  of 
this  other,  **  He  shall  teach  you  all  things "  ?  The 
answer  is,  that  this  heavenly  Teacher  does  His  work  in 
us — "  He  abideth  with  you,  and  shall  be  in  you."  His 
part  is  to  teach  inwardly.  All  the  truth  He  uses  is 
already  presented  in  Jesus, — in  His  life,  His  work.  His 
death,  and  His  person.  But  we  greatly  need  an  inward 
power  to  behold  the  truth.  We  lack  that  holiness 
without  which  there  is  no  divine  vision.  And  this 
Spirit  of  Truth,  who  is  also  the  Holy  Spirit,  purifies 
our  hearts,  rights  our  wills,  corrects  our  purposes,  and 
removes  the  veils  of  sin  which  dim  our  spiritual  vision. 
The  truth  that  was  outward  to  us,  but  which  we  had 
not  the  power  to  apprehend.  He  gives  us  inward  posses- 
sion of.  He  clears  our  spiritual  sight,  so  that  we  see 
what  we  could  not  have  seen  before  ;  and  when  from  the 
Scriptures,  or  any  other  source,  the  truth  of  Christ  is 
brought  to  us,  we  know  it  to  be  true,  as  a  man  whose 
vision  has  been  cleared  knows  the  light. 

Uncertainty  about  the  truth  in  the  things  of  God  and 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  103 

salvation  is  a  great  pain  to  many  souls  who  feel  unable 
of  themselves  to  attain  to  certainty.  Must  they,  then,  go 
to  an  earthly  authority  ?  No  earthly  authority  can  do 
more  than  present  truth  outwardly.  It  may  be  able  to 
commend  the  truth  to  our  acceptance  by  the  respect  we 
have  for  its  character,  and  the  experience  we  have 
already  had  of  its  wisdom ;  but  still  the  truth  it 
presents  remains  outside  of  us.  Even  Jesus  Himself, 
though  all  He  said  was  with  absolute  authority,  re- 
cognised the  need  of  His  disciples  for  an  inward 
teacher.  This  inward  Teacher  brings  no  new  truth  of 
His  own,  but  He  gives  the  capacity  more  and  more  to 
apprehend  the  truth  that  is  in  Jesus,  ^\^^at  was  for- 
gotten He  brings  to  remembrance  ;  what  was  given  in 
germ  He  carries  forward  fully  to  its  issues.  Through 
Him  the  great  Revealer  continues  to  enlighten  the 
Christian  mind — "He  shall  teach  you  all  things,"  said 
Jesus,  "and  bring  to  your  remembrance  all  that  I  said 
unto  you  "  (John  xiv.  26).  "I  have  yet  many  things  to 
say  unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now.  Howbeit 
when  he,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  he  shall  guide 
you  into  all  the  truth"  (John  xvi.  12,  13).  When  Jesus 
avowed  Himself  a  King  to  Pilate,  He  indicated  that  His 
kingdom  was  a  kingdom  of  the  truth.  But  how  shall 
such  a  kingdom  keep  its  ground,  or  make  way  in  a  world 
such  as  the  present?  We  say,  "Truth  is  great,  and 
will  prevail  " ;  but  how  often  experience  seems  to  belie 
this  proverb  !  How  slow  the  progress  of  truth  in  con- 
flict with  the  evil  dispositions  of  men  !  But  if  the  truth 
which  appeared  in  the  person  and  work  of  Jesus  be 
brought  home  to  men  by  the  power  of  a  divine  witness, 
and  if  those  who  are  "of  the  truth"  are  put  into  fuller 
and  fuller  possession  of  it  by  the  Spirit  of  truth  abiding 
with  them  for  ever  (John  xiv.  16),  then  the  permanence 
and  prevalence  of  the  kingdom  of  the  truth  are  indeed 
secured.  And  those  who  are  taught  by  the  Spirit  have 
an  assurance  of  knowing  the  truth  and  standing  in  the 
light,  which  can  be  given  by  no  external  authority,  as  of 
Pope,  or  Council,  or  Priesthood, 


I04  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

3.  From  what  has  now  been  said  of  the  inward 
character  of  the  teaching  of  the  Spirit,  we  may  see  how 
it  is  that,  though  this  heavenly  Teacher  is  a  person,  we 
are  conscious  of  Him,  in  our  experience  as  Christians, 
only,  or  usually,  as  an  influence.  "While  working  in  us. 
He  does  not  seek  to  draw  our  attention  to  Himself. 
His  work  is  to  reveal  Christ  to  us.  He  takes  of  the 
things  of  Christ,  and  declares  them  to  us  (John  xvi.  14). 
There  is  a  solemn  unselfishness — if  we  may  use  the 
word — disclosed  by  Jesus  in  the  relations  of  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Spirit  to  one  another.  The  Father 
would  have  all  men  honour  the  Son,  even  as  they  honour 
the  Father.  The  Father,  indeed,  accepts  no  honour  to 
Himself  if  like  honour  is  refused  to  the  Son — **  He  that 
honoureth  not  the  Son  honoureth  not  the  Father  which 
sent  him"  (John  v.  23).  The  Son,  on  His  part,  seeks 
only  to  glorify  the  Father,  and  to  finish  the  work 
which  the  Father  has  given  Him  to  do — "I  honour 
my  Father  ...  I  seek  not  mine  own  glory"  (John 
viii.  49,  50).  And  so  in  like  manner  the  aim  of  the 
Spirit  is  that  we  may  behold  the  Son.  He  hides  or 
effaces  Himself.  It  is  even  said  as  a  guarantee  of  His 
teaching  that  He  shall  not  speak  from  Himself,  or  by  His 
own  initiative.  He  waits  to  hear  from  Jesus,  who  is 
the  fountain  of  revelation,  the  special  truth  for  which 
the  time  has  come  that  it  should  be  apprehended ;  for 
still  Jesus  teaches  His  people  step  by  step  as  they  are 
able  to  bear  it,  and  as  the  time  requires  it.  "He  shall 
not  speak  from  himself ;  but  what  things  soever  he  shall 
hear,  these  shall  he  speak"  (John  xvi.  13).  And  Jesus 
says  further,  **  He  shall  glorify  me  :  for  he  shall  take 
of  mine,  and  shall  declare  it  unto  you"  (xvi.  14).  So, 
when  the  Spirit  works  most  powerfully  in  us,  we  may 
be  least  conscious  of  Him,  but  most  vividly  conscious 
of  Christ  and  of  the  things  of  Christ. 

Nor  does  the  Spirit,  though  personal,  efface  our  per- 
sonality by  His  dwelling  in  us.  We  are  not  less  ourselves, 
but  more  ourselves,  by  His  working  in  us.  So  intimate 
is  His  union  with  our  spirit,  He  does  not  see  and  obey 


U/S  TEACHING  ABOUT  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  105 

the  truth  for  us,  but  we  find  we  can  ourselves  see  and 
obey  it.  Love,  joy,  peace  are  indeed  fruits  of  the  Spirit 
in  us  ;  but  they  are  our  own  love,  our  own  joy,  our  own 
peace.  We  have  become  enriched  in  what  we  ourselves 
are. 

4.  Another  feature  of  the  work  of  the  Spirit  in  us : 
He  not  only  reveals  Jesus  to  us.  He  brings  us  into  com- 
munion  with  Him.  In  this  way  the  ever-living  Spirit  per- 
petuates the  presence  of  the  great  Founder  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  in  His  kingdom.  Other  kingdoms  fell  because 
their  mighty  founders  died.  Jesus  lives,  and  the  Spirit 
whom  He  sends  into  the  souls  of  believers,  to  dwell  in 
them,  keeps  them  in  such  vision  of  Him  and  communion 
with  Him  that,  in  a  true  sense,  He  is  perpetually  with 
them.  Thus  is  fulfilled  the  word  which  Jesus  spoke  to 
the  twelve  in  His  farewell  discourse:  "I  will  not  leave 
you  orphans  :  I  come  unto  you  "  (John  xiv.  18,  margin). 

There  are  two  comings  of  Jesus  which  have  pro- 
minence in  His  teaching,  and  which  may  here  be 
distinguished.  There  is  His  final  coming  in  glory  to 
end  this  dispensation  by  judgment.  There  is  also  a 
present  coming,  in  order  that  His  disciples  may  not  be 
desolate,  or  "orphaned,"  by  His  ascension  into  heaven. 
It  was  of  this  latter  He  said  in  that  farewell  discourse,  **  I 
come  unto  you.  Yet  a  little  while,  and  the  world  beholdeth 
me  no  more;  but  ye  behold  me"  (John  xiv.  18,  19). 
Without  such  a  promise  as  this  His  disciples  would 
indeed  have  been  orphans  ;  for  what  their  hearts  re- 
quired was  present  communion  with  their  Master  Him- 
self. And  this  they  received  ;  for,  though  the  Spirit  He 
promised  was  undoubtedly  another  than  Jesus,  the  two 
are  so  connected,  so  "inseparable  though  separate,"  and 
the  Spirit  so  reveals  Jesus  and  so  brings  into  com- 
munion with  Him,  that  His  disciples,  through  the 
presence  of  the  Spirit,  experience  an  inward  presence 
of  their  Master.  Not  bodily  indeed,  but  real:  the  bodily 
presence  was  to  end  ;  the  spiritual  presence  was  to  be  for 
ever. 

5.  One  other  aspect  of  the  work  of  the  Spirit — the 


io6  OUR  LORD'S   TEACHING 

other  Paraclete — may  yet  be  mentioned.  The  Spirit  is 
one,  and  His  work  one,  but  that  work  is  manifold  in  its 
aspects  and  gifts.  Perhaps  the  most  fundamental  aspect 
of  it — the  basis  of  all  His  working — is  this,  that  through 
Him  is  imparted  to  believers  the  life  of  Jestis.  He 
makes  them  sharers  in  that  life.  We  cannot  read  the 
words  of  Jesus  in  St.  John's  Gospel,  nor  can  we  listen 
to  the  testimony  of  Christian  people  in  all  ages,  without 
being  made  aware  that  a  new  life,  a  life  of  higher  power, 
has  been  introduced  into  humanity  by  the  coming  and 
work  of  Jesus.  This  He  declares — as  we  found  in  a 
former  chapter  (ix.) — to  be  the  purpose  of  His  coming  : 
*•  I  came  that  they  may  have  life,  and  may  have  it 
abundantly"  (John  x.  lo).  The  Father  is  the  first 
source  of  this  new  life,  as  of  all  life  and  all  blessing. 
But  the  Son  is  the  fountain  of  the  life  for  us  men,  the 
well  from  which  we  draw  it — *'The  Father  gave  the 
Son  to  have  life  in  himself"  (John  v.  26);  and  "The 
Son  quickeneth  (giveth  life  to)  whom  he  will "  (v.  21). 
"If  thou  knewest  the  gift  of  God,"  said  Jesus  at  the  well 
of  Samaria,  "and  who  it  is  that  saith  to  thee.  Give 
me  to  drink  ;  thou  wouldest  have  asked  of  him,  and 
he  would  have  given  thee  living  water  .  .  .  Who- 
soever drinketh  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him 
shall  never  thirst ;  but  the  water  that  I  shall  give 
him  shall  become  in  him  a  well  of  water  springing 
up  unto  eternal  life"  (John  iv.  10,  14).  From  what 
He  further  teaches  we  believe  that  this  life  is  ministered 
to  us  through  the  Spirit.  It  is  by  the  working  of  the 
Spirit  that  the  Son  quickeneth  whom  He  will.  The 
new  birth  is  by  the  Spirit  (John  iii.  6).  The  life  that  is 
in  the  Son  passes  into  all  who  are  united  to  Him  by  the 
Spirit  whom  He  sends,  and  they  are  kept  living  and 
fruitful  while  they  abide  in  Him,  as  the  branches  of  the 
vine  are  kept  living  and  fruitful  while  they  abide  in  the 
vine-stem,  and  receive  the  flow  of  its  life  (John  xv.  1-8). 
We  may  venture  to  illustrate  this  further  from  a  notable 
resource  in  modem  surgery.  If  through  loss  of  blood 
a  man's  body  is  dangerously  weakened,  blood  may  be 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  107 

transfused  into  his  veins  from  the  body  of  a  friend  willing 
that  his  own  abundance  may  be  drawn  upon  for  the  great 
need  of  the  other.  This  friend  gives,  as  it  were,  of  his 
own  life  to  supply  that  which  is  weak  and  fainting  in  the 
other.  So  it  is  a  provision  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
that  those  who  believe  in  Him  have  imparted  to  them, 
through  the  Spirit,  of  His  own  blessed,  pure,  and  inex- 
haustible moral  life,  and  in  this  manner  the  enfeebled 
powers  of  our  human  nature  are  replenished  out  of  the 
fulness  of  God.  It  follows  that  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is 
not  only  world-wide  in  aim,  not  only  takes  for  its  work 
the  redemption  of  mankind,  and  accepts  for  Jesus  the 
title  of  "Saviour  of  the  World"  (John  iv.  42;  vi.  51), 
but  brings  with  it  a  force  adequate  to  the  accomplishment 
of  this  great  task. 

We  are  now  enabled  to  complete  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
at  points  at  which,  apart  from  His  doctrine  of  the  Spirit, 
that  teaching  can  be  only  imperfectly  stated. 

(<z)  For  example,  we  saw  in  a  former  chapter  (viii.) 
that  we  cannot  do  our  part  in  making  the  great  re- 
nunciation without  divine  help.  Only  with  God  is  it 
possible  for  us  to  respond  to  the  divine  invitation,  jdeld 
to  the  divine  will,  and  exchange  the  temporal  for  the 
eternal.  Now  we  may  state  that  it  is  through  the  power 
of  the  Spirit,  by  His  working  in  us,  that  we  are  enabled 
of  God  to  do  this.  The  Spirit  is  promised  to  them  that 
ask.  "  If  ye  ,  .  .  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good 
gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much  more  shall  your 
heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask 
him?"  (Luke  xi.  13). 

(3)  It  is  by  the  indwelling  of  the  Spirit  that  we  can 
keep  the  commandments  of  Jesus,  and  fulfil  the  righteous- 
ness which  He  taught.  It  was  pointed  out  in  a  former 
chapter  (vii.)  that  the  religion  of  Jesus  surpasses  all 
others  in  moral  motive  power.  This,  we  said,  was  due 
to  His  revelation  of  the  Father.  It  will  now  be  seen 
that  it  is  by  the  gift  of  the  indwelling  Spirit  that  the 
efficiency  of  this  revelation  as  a  motive  is  secured,  and  the 
"  moral  dynamic  "  perfected.     The  Fatherhood  of  God 


io8  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

takes  irresistible  hold  of  a  soul  in  which  is  the  divine  life 
ministered  to  us  by  the  Spirit ;  or,  as  we  may  also  express 
it,  a  soul  which  has  in  it  a  divine  life  by  a  divine  presence, 
takes  inseparable  hold  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  and  is 
filled  with  the  affection  and  impulse  that  are  consequent 
on  conscious  sonship  with  God.  So  the  man  in  whom  the 
Spirit  has  free  course  will  be  devoted  with  all  his  soul 
and  heart  and  mind  to  fulfilling  the  great  commandment, 
"  that  ye  may  be  sons  of  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven," 
and  "be  perfect,  as  your  heavenly  Father  is  perfect" 
(Matt.  V.  45,  48). 

(c)  The  Spirit  is  also,  by  the  same  gift  of  life,  the 
alone  spring  and  secret  of  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  of  the 
word  preached,  and  of  the  sacraments.  Prayer  in  the 
Spirit,  preaching  in  the  Spirit,  hearing  in  the  Spirit, 
receiving  the  sacraments  in  the  Spirit,  these  alone — 
according  to  the  analogy  of  our  Lord's  teaching,  even 
when  it  is  not  actually  expressed — are  prevalent  and 
efficacious. 

{d)  Lastly,  it  is  by  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  divinely 
transforming  and  inspiring  the  followers  of  Jesus,  that  the 
Gospel  and  the  kingdom  of  God  advance  in  the  world. 
**Ye  shall  receive  power,  when  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
come  upon  you  :  and  ye  shall  be  my  witnesses  both  in 
Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judaea  and  Samaria,  and  unto 
the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth  "  (Acts  i.  8).  So  Jesus 
spoke  during  the  interval  between  His  resurrection 
and  the  descent  of  the  Spirit  at  Pentecost.  And  the 
greatness  of  this  promise  may  come  home  to  us  more 
forcibly  if  we  remember  that  it  was  in  this  same  power 
— by  the  Spirit — that  Jesus  Himself,  when  He  was 
in  the  flesh,  spake  the  words  of  God  (John  iii.  34), 
and  did  His  mighty  deeds.  The  Spirit  descended  upon 
Him  at  His  baptism  (Matt.  iii.  16).  We  believe  it 
was  then  that  He  was  "  anointed  with  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  with  power "  (Acts  x.  38).  In  the  power  of  the 
Spirit  He  entered  on  His  ministry  (Luke  iv.  14).  He 
Himself  said,  "  I  by  the  Spirit  of  God  cast  out  devils  " 
(Matt.  xii.  28).      For  the  great  enterprise  of  casting  out 


HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  109 

the  evil  of  the  world  and  overcoming  Satan  in  it,  lie 
arms  I  lis  disciples  with  the  same  power.  He  sends  the 
Spirit,  who  is  first  of  all  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  the  power  of 
their  own  inward  sanctification.  He  promises  in  regard 
to  their  preaching,  **  It  is  not  ye  that  speak,  but  the 
Spirit  of  your  Father  that  speaketh  in  you  "  (Matt.  x.  20). 
He  undertakes  through  the  Spirit  to  guide  them  into  all 
the  truth,  a  promise  that  has  been  and  shall  be  fulfilled 
in  the  progressive  ages  of  the  Church.  And  in  a  word 
that  startles  us  as  we  read  it.  He  says  :  **  Verily,  verily,  I 
say  unto  you,  He  that  believeth  on  me,  the  works  that  I 
do  shall  he  do  also  ;  and  greater  works  than  these  shall 
he  do;  because  I  go  unto  the  Father"  (John  xiv.  12). 
It  is  plain  from  this  saying  that  Jesus  anticipated  that, 
after  the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  His  disciples  would  have  a  life 
and  a  power  so  great  that  they  would  accomplish  spiritual 
victories  and  work  spiritual  changes  in  human  hearts  to 
an  extent  surpassing  what  He  Himself  had  done — a 
promise  which  has  in  fact  been  fulfilled,  and  yet  awaits 
greater  fulfilment  as  those  who  believe  on  Jesus  receive 
it  with  greater  faith. 

It  has  been  implied  throughout  this  chapter,  and  may 
be  here  expressly  stated  in  concluding  it,  that  since  Jesus 
came  forth  from  the  Father  into  the  world,  and  again, 
leaving  the  world,  went  to  the  Father,  the  Spirit  is  given 
in  a  manner  greatly  excelling  in  value  the  experience  of 
His  presence  enjoyed  by  Old  Testament  saints,  or  by  any 
to  whom  Jesus  has  not  been  made  known.  St.  John, 
indeed,  speaks  of  the  Spirit  as,  in  a  sense,  not  yet  given  till 
Jesus  was  glorified  (John  vii.  39),  and  in  this  he  says  no 
more  than  is  implied  in  many  words  of  Jesus  Himself,  as, 
for  example,  *'  If  I  go  not  away,  the  Paraclete  will  not 
come  unto  you  ;  but  if  I  go,  I  will  send  him  unto  you  " 
(John  xvi.  7).  Why  this  is  so,  why  the  great  coming  of  the 
Spirit,  characteristic  of  the  Gospel  dispensation,  was  so 
long  delayed,  why  it  was  dependent  on  Jesus  being 
glorified,  these  are  questions  to  which  the  wisest 
theologians  are  conscious  of  being  able  to  give  only  im- 
perfect answers.     We  refer  here  to  the  subject  only  that 


no  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 


this  gift  of  the  Spirit  may  be  the  more  reverenced, 
prized,  and  used  ;  and  that  the  Gospel,  with  which  alone 
it  is  associated,  may  be  the  more  honoured.  Was  it  not 
because  of  this  that  after  Jesus  had  said,  **  Among  them 
that  are  born  of  women  there  hath  not  arisen  a  greater 
than  John  the  Baptist,"  He  went  on  and  added,  "Yet 
he  that  is  but  little  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  greater 
than  he"? 


ABOUT  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY    iix 


CHAPTER   XII 

HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY 

I.  The  Church  seldom  expressly  named  by  Jesus,  but 
then  with  emphasis — The  purpose  of  the  Church  and 
its  ground  in  human  nature — It  is  specially  divine,  i. 
In  its  institution.  2.  In  its  bond  of  union.  3.  In  its 
supernatural  powers  by  Christ's  presence  and  Spirit — 
These  are  (a)  prevailing  power  with  God,  (^)  power 
and  authority  toward  men — These  powers  bestowed 
fully  on  the  Church  in  its  ideal  perfection,  but  pos- 
sessed only  in  proportion  as  the  spiritiaal  conditions 
are  fulfilled — Duty  of  the  Church  not  to  neglect  these 
powers — Organisation  of  the  Church  deferred,  and 
therefore  teaching  on  the  Christian  ministry  deferred, 
till  after  the  Church's  actual  beginning  at  Pentecost — 
Work  for  which  the  Church  exists — i.  Within  the 
Church,  for  which  these  means  are  appointed:  (i) 
united  worship,  (2)  discipline,  (3)  mutual  care,  (4)  the 
ministry,  (5)  sacraments — Ground  of  sacraments  in 
reason  —  Baptism — The  Lord's  Supper;  2.  Beyond 
the  Church — Means  of  advancing  the  Gospel :  (i)  the 
unity  of  the  Church,  (2)  its  missionary  preaching — 
Duties  suggested.  II.  The  Family, — Jesus'  teach- 
ing on  marriage,  and  in  regard  to  children — The 
Christian  fan^iily  a  part  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

L  The  Church 

•*  'T^HE  Church  "  is  a  subject  in  regard  to  which  there 

-*■       has  long  been  great  conflict  of  opinion,  and  much 

difference  of  sentiment.     Some  assert  very  high  things 

of  the  Church,  and  claim  for  it  very  great  authority  ; 


OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 


others  believe  and  claim  very  little.  Let  us  inquire  what 
was  taught  on  the  subject  by  Jesus  Himself. 

First,  we  find  that  He  spoke  very  rarely  of  it.  Only 
twice  in  all  His  discourses  is  the  Church  expressly 
named,  and  the  report  of  both  occasions  reaches  us  by 
one  evangelist  (Matt,  xvi  16-19,  ^^d  xviii.  15-20).  We 
cannot,  however,  conclude  from  this  that  He  thought 
the  Church  of  small  importance  ;  for  the  mention  He 
does  make  of  it  is  with  great  emphasis.  He  says  much 
regarding  it  in  little  space.  Not,  indeed,  till  far  on  in 
His  ministry  does  He  name  it,  but  when  He  does,  His 
abrupt  words,  **I  will  build  my  church"  (Matt.  xvi.  18), 
indicate  something  already  long  in  His  mind,  and, 
though  new  to  His  disciples,  deep  in  His  own  affection. 
How  great  the  institution  was  in  His  thought  is  plain 
also  from  the  emphasis  of  His  prophecy,  uttered  at  the 
same  moment,  that  His  Church  would  endure  through  all 
time,  in  spite  of  the  powers  of  decay  and  death  which 
are  fatal  to  other  institutions  and  empires — "  The  gates 
of  Hades  shall  not  prevail  against  it"  (Matt.  xvi.  18). 

The  word  used  by  Jesus,  which  we  translate  Churchy 
might  also  be  translated  congregation  (see  margin  of 
R.V.  Matt,  xviii.  17).  It  is  the  same  word  which  was 
often  used  to  designate  God's  ancient  Israel,  "the  con- 
gregation of  the  Lord"  (i  Chron.  xxviii.  8).  Jesus 
therefore  implied  that  He  was  about  to  call  together  an 
elect  race,  and  constitute  a  holy  people,  which  would 
serve  a  purpose  under  the  new  covenant  like  to  that 
served  by  Israel  under  the  old. 

What  now  is  the  purpose  of  the  Church  ?  What  great 
need  did  Jesus  see  for  its  existence — what  good  to  be 
accomplished  by  it?  The  need  and  call  for  a  Church  rests 
on  facts  of  human  nature  which  have  their  place  in  that 
nature  by  its  original  make  and  creation.  Men  do  not 
attain  the  highest  good  of  which  they  are  capable,  or  have 
their  highest  power  to  do  good,  while  standing  alone  and 
apart  from  each  other.  It  is  in  union  and  fellowship 
that  they  come  to  their  best  and  strongest.  Also,  in  this 
world  of  things  seen  and  material,  spiritual  realities  obtain 


ABOUT  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY    113 

increased  power  over  men's  minds  by  having  some  visible 
embodiment.  So,  in  accordance  with  human  nature, 
the  Church  is  formed  as  a  union  for  realising,  manifest- 
ing, and  advancing  the  kingdom  of  God;  and  it  accom- 
plishes this  in  two  ways — by  the  higher  level  of  blessing 
to  which  its  members,  so  united,  attain,  and  by  the 
greater  power  and  force  with  which,  so  united,  they 
influence  the  world. 

If,  however,  the  Church  were  no  more  than  this, 
it  would  be  simply  a  natural  institution,  and  no  more 
divine  than  any  other  association  of  men  for  worthy  ends. 
But  we  find  that,  few  as  are  the  words  of  Jesus  about 
the  Church,  He  invests  it  with  a  specially  divine  char- 
acter and  promises  to  endow  it  with  supernatural  powers. 

1.  First  we  find  it  is  divine  in  its  itistitution.  It  is 
not  formed  merely  by  men  coming  together  as  they  natur- 
ally draw  to  one  another  when  they  have  a  common  belief 
and  a  common  purpose.  It  has  Jesus  for  its  divine  founder 
and  builder.  **  I  will  build  my  church,"  He  says.  Accord- 
ingly it  is  not  a  matter  of  choice  with  a  Christian  to  be  a 
member  of  Christ's  Church  :  it  is  his  duty  to  his  Lord. 

2.  Next  we  find  that  its  bond  of  tmion  is  also  super- 
natural. What  is  this  bond?  We  see  it  from  the  in- 
stance of  Peter,  whom  Jesus  took  as  the  first  stone  of 
the  building.  He  was  taken  on  the  ground  of  a  super- 
natural faith.  Peter  confessed  Jesus  to  be  the  Christ,  the 
Son  of  the  living  God  ;  and  of  the  faith  so  expressed  Jesus 
said,  "  Flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee, 
but  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  It  was  in  virtue  of 
this  divinely -inspired  faith  that  Peter  and  the  other 
apostles  (see  Matt,  xviii.  18,  and  Ephes.  ii.  20)  were  made 
first  stones  of  the  sacred  building,  and  that  other  disciples 
after  them  are  built  into  it.  Jesus  is  the  founder  of  the 
Church,  or — with  a  legitimate  variation  of  metaphor — its 
"one  foundation, "and  theclaim  to  be  built  on  that  founda- 
tion lies  in  the  confession  of  a  like  faith  with  that  of  Peter. 

Of  course  it  is  not  intellectual  assent  to  a  creed  which 
suffices,  and  the  actual  words  of  confession  may  not  be 
the  same  that   Peter  used.      He  himself,  indeed,   im- 

8 


114  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

perfectly  realised  the  meaning  of  what  he  said.  There 
is  no  reason  to  think  that  he  had  yet  attained  to  the 
belief  that  Jesus  was  the  Eternal  Son  of  God.  But  he 
had  attained  to  a  faith  in  Jesus  which  drew  his  soul's 
trust  and  devotion ;  and  whoever  truly  avows  a  like  faith 
in  Jesus,  and  obedience  to  Him,  has  the  qualification  for 
admission  into  the  Church.  Such  a  faith  (as  we  found 
in  chapter  viii.)  always  has  in  it  something  that  is  divine. 

3.  Next  we  find  that  the  Church  is  endowed  with 
supernatural  powers.  It  has  such  powers  because  of  a 
supernatural  force  sustaining  it  in  its  dealings  with  God 
and  with  men.  What  is  this  divine  force?  It  is  the 
presence  of  Christ,  and  the  gift  of  His  Spirit.  Jesus  in 
His  teaching  about  the  Church  says,  **  Where  two  or 
three  are  gathered  together  in  my  name,  there  am  I  in 
the  midst  of  them  "  (Matt,  xviii.  20).  So  dear  to  Him 
is  fellowship  among  His  people,  so  much  does  He  value 
it  in  itself  and  for  the  ends  of  His  kingdom,  that  He 
joins  Himself  to  the  company  of  those  who  meet  in  His 
name,  even  though  they  be  only  two  or  three.  Hence 
the  old  maxims,  Ubi  tres,  ibi  ChristuSy  and  Ubi  Christus, 
ibi  ecclesia  (**  Where  three  are,  there  is  Christ,"  and 
"  Where  Christ  is,  there  is  the  Church  ").  This  presence 
of  Christ  is  the  great  source  of  dignity  and  authority  to 
the  Church.  And  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  which  accompanies 
His  presence  is  the  Church's  great  source  of  illumination — 
bringing  strength,  comfort,  wisdom,  and  discernment  of 
the  spirits  of  men.  In  the  assembled  Church,  after  His 
resurrection  from  the  dead,  Jesus  said,  "  Peace  be  unto 
you :  as  the  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you.  And 
when  he  had  said  this,  he  breathed  on  them,  and  saith  unto 
them.  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost "  (John  xx.  22,  23). 

Let  us  now  take  note  of  the  powers  of  the  Church, 
mentioned  by  Jesus,  which  are  consequent  on  this  super- 
natural force. 

(a)  There  is  first  a  prevailing  power  with  God.  **  If 
two  of  you  shall  agree  on  earth,  as  touching  any  thing 
that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be  done  for  them  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven"  (Matt,  xviii.  19).    Fellowship 


ABOUT  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY    115 


in  prayer  has  an  exceptional  power  with  God,  even 
though  it  be  the  fellowship  of  so  few,  because  Jesus  joins 
the  company  of  those  who  meet  in  His  name,  and  a 
company  of  whom  He  is  one,  and  whose  prayer  is 
prompted  by  Him,  God  will  undoubtedly  hear.  The 
promise,  "Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in 
my  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them  "  (Matt,  xviii. 
20),  has  been  called  "the  Charter  of  Public  Wor- 
ship." 1 

{b)  In  consequence  of  the  same  presence  of  Chnst 
the  Church  is  invested  with  great  power  and  authority 
towards  men.  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you.  What  things 
soever  ye  shall  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven  : 
and  what  things  soever  ye  shall  loose  on  earth  shall  be 
loosed  in  heaven"  (Matt,  xviii.  18).  That  is  to  say, 
whatever  the  Church  does  in  its  government  and  discipline 
shall  be  ratified  in  heaven ;  or,  in  other  words,  the 
Church  shall  be  so  guided  as  not  to  err,  but  have  God 
consenting  with  it,  and  its  decisions  shall  have  divine 
authority.  Again,  in  John  xx.  23,  "WTiose  soever  sins 
ye  forgive,  they  are  forgiven  unto  them  ;  whose  soever 
sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained."  That  is  to  say,  the 
Church,  or  company  of  Christ's  disciples,  shall  be  so 
guided  in  opening  or  shutting  the  door  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  in  assuring  souls  of  forgiveness,  or  in  declaring 
that  their  sins  abide  upon  them,  that  in  these  solemn 
dealings  they  shall  not  err,  but  have  God  consenting  with 
them.  In  the  first  form  in  which  this  great  authority 
was  given,  it  seemed  to  be  given  to  Peter  alone — "I 
will  give  unto  thee  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.'* 
But  we  find  in  Matt,  xviii.  18  and  in  John  xx.  23 
(compared  with  Luke  xxiv.  33)  the  like  authority 
extended  to  all  the  Church. 

So,  then,  in  the  short  teaching  of  Jesus  regarding  the 
Church  it  stands  out  as  a  divine  institution,  which  He 
sustains  by  His  presence  in  the  Spirit,  and  to  which  He 
gives  supernatural  powers  in  the  things  of  the  kingdom 
of  God. 

1  Goulbum,  Personal  Religion,  p.  xa8. 


ii6  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

This  may  seem  startling  to  many,  and  they  may  have 
much  hesitation  in  believing  that  so  great  powers  are 
possessed  by  any  Church  now.  The  language  of  Jesus 
in  regard  to  the  Church  and  the  actual  Church  which  we 
see  may  not  seem  to  correspond.  But  we  must  not  try 
to  make  them  correspond,  as  is  too  often  done,  by 
ignoring  and  overlooking  the  promises  of  Jesus  to  His 
Church,  or  lessening  their  plain  meaning.  It  is,  how- 
ever, to  be  observed  that  while  Jesus  utters  them  with  the 
fulness  and  certainty  with  which  He  Himself  bestows, 
they  are  possessed  by  the  Church  only  in  the  measure 
in  which  it  has  the  faith  of  true  discipleship,  really  meets 
in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  really  receives  the  Spirit  whom 
He  gives.  If  it  does  not  ful^1  these  spiritual  conditions, 
the  Church  is  no  longer  the  body  to  which  the  promises 
are  given  ;  and  only  in  proportion  as  it  fulfils  them  can  it 
be  invested  with  the  supernatural  powers  of  which  Jesus 
speaks.  He  speaks  of  the  Church  in  its  ideal  perfection, 
and  declares  that  its  acts  are  His  acts  and  God's  acts,  be- 
cause of  its  union  with  Him  and  with  God  through  Him. 
But  in  so  far  as  worldly  thought  and  motive  prevent  the 
members  of  the  Church  from  meeting  truly  in  His  name, 
and  in  so  far  as  they  do  not  yield  themselves  to  Him  and 
His  Spirit,  the  powers  with  which  the  ideal  Church  is 
invested  are  diminished  or  withdrawn.  The  Church, 
therefore,  ought  never  to  claim  infallibility,  being  humbly 
conscious  of  imperfection.  But  neither  should  it  go  to 
the  other  extreme  and  throw  away,  through  want  of  faith 
in  Christ's  words  and  through  want  of  desire,  the  great 
grace  and  powers  He  promises.  It  is  the  solemn  duty  of 
those  who  meet  to  take  counsel  for  the  government  and 
discipline  of  the  Church  to  meet  so  truly  in  the  name  of 
Christ,  that  what  they  bind  on  earth  may  be  bound  in 
heaven.  It  is  the  duty  of  congregations  so  to  depend 
on  the  promise  of  Jesus  in  regard  to  two  or  three  gathered 
in  His  name,  that  the  prayers  offered,  the  words  spoken, 
and  the  sacraments  dispensed,  may  assuredly  have  divine 
efficacy.  Nor  should  the  Church  forget  its  great  power 
in  regard  to  the  forgiveness  of  sins  :  **  Whose  soever  sins 


ABOUT  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY    117 

ye  forgive,  they  are  forgiven  unto  them  ;  whose  soever 
sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained  "  (John  xx.  23).  We 
cannot,  of  course,  read  this  promise  as  if  it  meant  that 
God  would  ratify  what  the  Church  has  done  in  error. 
Nor  can  the  Church  do  more  in  any  case  than  declare  by 
its  forgiveness  that  God  has  forgiven,  or  make  its  forgive- 
ness a  pledge  of  God's.  But  this  declaration  may  be  of 
much  value  and  power.  We  know  that  a  man's  heart  is 
often  greatly  lightened  by  the  forgiveness  of  his  brethren. 
If  he  has  committed  sin  and  afterwards  repented  of 
it,  the  restoration  to  fellowship  which  his  brethren 
accord  him  will  greatly  help  him  to  attain  peace.  If 
indeed  he  knows  them  to  be  Christ's  servants,  men  who 
have  received  the  Holy  Ghost,  their  forgiveness  will  be 
a  deep  assurance  to  him  that  he  has  received  the  forgive- 
ness of  God.  The  Church  should  by  no  means  forget  or 
neglect  to  use  such  a  ministry  of  peace  committed  to  it. 
Nor  again  should  it  leave  unused  the  power  given  it  of 
** retaining"  sins.  A  very  powerful  effect  in  convincing 
of  sin  and  bringing  to  repentance  may  be  produced  by 
the  Church  witnessing  in  regard  to  sin  in  which  a  brother 
is  living,  or  excluding  him  from  its  fellowship  as  one 
who  has  no  longer  the  place  of  a  brother  in  Christ,  but 
is  become  "as  the  Gentile  and  the  publican"  (Matt, 
xviii.  17). 

In  the  short  teaching  of  Jesus  about  the  Church  there 
is  nothing  expressly  said  about  its  ministry.  The  Church, 
like  every  other  society  that  is  to  be  efficient,  must  have 
rulers,  and  must  be  so  organised  that  its  work  may  be 
divided  according  to  the  various  gifts  and  talents  of  its 
members.  This  organisation  hardly  began,  however, 
while  Jesus  was  on  earth,  and  He  does  not  give  direc- 
tions for  it  in  His  teaching.  The  twelve  apostles  are 
the  first  stones — in  a  sense,  the  foundation  stones — not  o£ 
the  Christian  ministry,  but  of  the  whole  Christian  Church, 
just  as  the  twelve  patriarchs  are  the  foundation  stones  of 
the  whole  Old  Testament  Church.  And  the  promises 
which  the  apostles  received  were,  in  general,  promises 
for  the  whole  Church.      That  this  is  so  in  regard  to  the 


ii8  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

promises  we  are  now  dealing  with  may  be  ascertained  by 
observing  that  all  the  three  verses — Matt,  xviii.  i8,  19, 
20 — are  addressed  to  the  same  persons  ;  and  plainly  the 
promise  in  the  last  verse,  which  is  the  ground  of  all  the 
power  spoken  of,  is  not  withheld  from  any  two  or  three 
Christian  souls.  Also  the  great  power  to  forgive  sins  as 
a  pledge  of  God's  forgiveness  (John  xx.  23),  which  is  the 
same  as  "  the  power  of  the  keys  "  first  given  to  Peter 
(Matt.  xvi.  19),  was  given  to  a  company  in  which,  as 
we  learn  from  Luke  xxiv.  33,  ordinary  disciples  were 
assembled  as  well  as  apostles.  It  is  necessary  to  direct 
attention  to  this,  because  great  abuses  have  arisen  in  the 
history  of  the  Christian  Church  through  the  promises  of 
supernatural  power  being  claimed  exclusively  for  men 
ordained  to  the  office  of  the  ministry,  as  if  these  powers 
belonged  to  that  office  alone,  and  were  infallibly  conveyed 
to  all  who  are  ordained  to  it  in  unbroken  succession.  Where 
Jesus  said  * '  the  Church, "  the  ministry,  as  a  hierarchy  of  the 
Church,  has  been  understood — an  error  from  which  those 
who  read  the  English  Bible  would  have  been  kept  more 
safe  had  our  translation  read  in  these  passages  '■^con- 
gregation "  for  *'  church  "  as  was  the  case  in  all  the  early 
English  versions.  What  the  place  of  the  Christian 
ministry  is  in  the  Church,  and  what  powers  Christ  gives 
to  those  whom  He  calls  to  the  office,  must  be  learned 
from  the  history  of  the  Church  after  the  ascension  of 
Jesus,  and  from  the  apostolic  writings.  Not  till  Jesus 
had  ascended  did  the  Church  actually  exist  and  its 
organisation  make  progress.  While  Jesus  was  yet  in  the 
flesh  His  promise  to  be  present  everywhere  with  two  or 
three  met  in  His  name  could  not  be  fulfilled.  It  was  a 
prophetic  promise.  Nor  was  the  Holy  Ghost  fully  given 
till  the  day  of  Pentecost  after  Jesus  had  ascended.  From 
that  day  we  date  the  existence  on  earth  of  the  divine 
institution  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 

The  great  work  for  which  the  Church  exists,  of  realis- 
ing, revealing,  and  furthering  the  kingdom  of  God,  divides 
itself,  as  already  indicated,  into  two  portions — the 
nourishing  of  the  faith  and  life  of  the  members  of  the 


ABOUT  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY    119 

Church,  and  the  spreading  of  the  Gospel  among  those 
outside  of  it. 

I.  For  the  former  end  we  see  that  the  means  ap- 
pointed by  Jesus  in  His  Church  are  —  (i)  the  united 
worship  to  which  He  has  attached  the  great  promise  of 
His  presence  ;  {2)  the  discipline,  for  the  exercise  of  which 
He  has  also  given  His  Church  authority  and  power ;  (3) 
the  mutual  love  and  care  for  each  other  which  He  urges 
on  His  disciples  ;  (4)  the  ministry  of  His  word,  and 
the  pastoral  care  both  exercised  by  Himself  while  on 
earth,  and  to  be  exercised  afterwards  by  those  whom  He 
calls  to  such  ministry  in  the  Spirit ;  and  (5)  the  two  sym- 
bolic ordinances  commonly  (though  never  in  the  New 
Testament)  called  sacraments. 

The  institution  by  Jesus  of  these  last  named  was, 
like  the  Church  itself,  an  adaptation  to  facts  of  our 
human  nature  with  which  we  are  familiar.  Spiritual  and 
unseen  realties,  though  supreme  in  their  importance,  are 
apt  to  be  dwarfed  in  our  thoughts  by  the  obtrusive 
pressure  of  things  seen,  and  they  gain  greatly  increased 
power  over  our  minds  by  having  some  visible  embodi- 
ment. A  tangible  symbol  may  be  a  help  to  our  faith, 
and  by  means  of  it  we  may  grasp  more  firmly  things 
unseen.  It  is  also  a  fact  of  our  human  nature  that  such 
blessings  as  those  of  the  kingdom  of  God  have  much 
more  power  in  our  life  when  we  not  only  have  them,  but 
know  that  we  have  them.  The  sacraments  are  ordin- 
ances in  which  these  blessings  are  conveyed  or  assured  to 
us,  not,  as  in  preaching,  by  word  only,  but  by  visible 
symbol,  in  which  we  take  hold  of  them,  as  it  were,  by  a 
material  handle,  and  so  have  greater  assurance  of  possess- 
ing them.  The  sacraments  do  not  convey  to  us  any 
other  blessings  than  those  which  are  conveyed  to  us  by 
the  word  of  Christ.  Nothing  higher  can  be  given  us 
than  Jesus  names  in  this  saying  about  His  word,  "  The 
words  that  I  have  spoken  unto  you  are  spirit,  and  are 
life  "  (John  vi.  63).  Nor  do  the  sacraments  convey  the 
blessings  of  the  kingdom  of  God  to  us  on  any  other  terms 
than  those   which  the  preaching  of  the  word  requires. 


I20  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

If  we  have  not  faith  and  truth  in  our  hearts  we  receive 
nothing  by  them.  But  they  are,  as  it  were,  '*  a  visible 
word  "1  and  a  tangible  word,  in  the  use  of  which  our 
faith  may  attain  great  vividness,  assurance,  and  blessing. 

Christian  baptism  was  instituted  by  Jesus  just  before 
He  "was  received  up,"  as  a  sacrament  of  entrance  into 
His  kingdom.  "Go  ye  .  .  .  and  make  disciples  of  all 
the  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the  name  of  the  Father, 
and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost"  (Matt,  xxviii. 
19).  The  "name"  of  God  means,  in  Scripture,  the 
revelation  of  what  He  is.  Baptism  is  therefore  into  the 
great  faith  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  the  faith  in  God, 
revealed  by  Jesus,  as  Father,  Redeemer,  and  Sanctifier. 
In  this  faith  the  baptized  person  is  henceforth  to  live. 
And  the  water  of  cleansing  used  in  baptism  symbolises 
the  blessings  received  in  entering  the  kingdom  of  God, 
viz.  the  forgiveness  of  sins  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  and 
cleansing  from  sin's  inward  pollution  by  His  life-giving 
Spirit.  That  so  great  blessings  are  assured  will  not  be 
felt  incredible  if  those  who  take  part  in  baptism  remember 
the  words  which  Jesus  spoke  in  the  same  sentence  in 
which  He  instituted  it — "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway, 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world  "  (Matt,  xxviii.  20). 

The  Lord's  Supper,  as  shown  by  the  words  and  acts 
of  Jesus  in  instituting  it  (Matt.  xxvi.  26-28;  Mark  xiv. 
22-24;  Luke  xxii.  19,  20;  i  Cor.  xi.  23-25)  is — {a)  a 
feast  of  remembrance — "This  do  in  remembrance  of  me" 
(i  Cor.  xi.  24).  By  this  commemoration,  in  which  the 
bread  and  wine  are  symbols  of  His  body  broken  and 
His  blood  shed,  the  Christian  Church  has  its  love 
quickened  through  all  ages,  and  its  faith  still  centred  on 
Jesus  and  on  His  death  for  our  salvation,  {b)  The 
Lord's  Supper  is  a  feast  of  reconciliation  with  God  by 
the  death  of  Jesus.  It  is  a  feast  following  on  a  sacrifice, 
as  when  in  Old  Testament  times  the  offerers  of  a  sin-offer- 
ing rejoiced  before  God  in  their  being  reconciled  to  Him. 
The  sacrifice  of  the  Cross,  though  now  so  far  back  in  time, 
is  of  undiminished  power  with  God  as  an  atonement  for 
1  St.  Augustine. 


ABOUT  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY   121 

sins.  So,  for  this  feast  of  reconciliation,  emblems  of 
the  offering  are  enough,  bread  broken  and  wine  poured 
out.  By  means  of  them  what  is  present  in  power  to  God 
becomes  present  to  our  faith,  {c)  The  Lord's  Supper  is 
also  an  occasion  of  Jesus  communicating  to  us,  and  of  our 
receiving  and  having  nourished  in  us,  that  divine  and 
eternal  life  which  (as  we  saw  in  chapter  ix.)  it  was  His 
great  errand  into  the  world  to  give.  Jesus  is  present  in 
the  Lord's  Supper,  according  to  the  promise,  "Where 
two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  my  name,  there 
am  I  in  the  midst  of  them  "  (Matt,  xviii.  20).  Not  only 
are  bread  and  wine  placed  on  the  table,  according  to  His 
word  ;  not  only  are  they  broken  and  poured  out — this 
would  be  enough  if  joyful  meditation  on  His  death  for 
our  sins  were  the  whole  purpose  of  the  supper — but  He 
says  also  with  the  bread,  **  Take,  eat,  this  is  my  body," 
and  with  the  cup,  "  Drink  ye  all  of  it."  Obviously  He 
communicates  to  us  in  this  ordinance,  and  we  receive. 
And  from  other  words  of  His,  spoken  at  an  earlier  time, 
•*  He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood  hath 
eternal  life"  (John  vi.  54),  it  is  plain  that  what  we  receive 
is  the  life  of  which  He  repeatedly  declares  Himself  to  be  the 
one  source — a  life  which  He  received  from  the  Father, 
but  could  communicate  to  us  only  after  first  giving  Him- 
self in  death  as  a  sacrifice  for  the  sin  of  the  world  (John 
vi.  51). 

2.  Passing  now  to  the  other  great  end  for  which  the 
Church  exists — the  spreading  of  the  Gospel  of  the 
kingdom  among  those  outside  of  it — we  see  two  great 
means  contemplated  by  Jesus. 

( I )  The  unity  of  the  Church — the  unity  of  its  members 
in  God  and  in  one  another — and  the  powerful  effect  on 
the  world  of  the  testimony  of  this  union  in  a  divine  life. 
**  Neither  for  these  only  do  I  pray,  but  for  them  also 
that  believe  on  me  through  their  word  ;  that  they  may 
all  be  one  ;  even  as  thou.  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in 
thee,  that  they  also  may  be  in  us  :  that  the  world  may  be- 
lieve that  thou  didst  send  me  "  (John  xvii.  20,  21).  For 
the  strengthening  of  this  great  testimony,  Jesus  urged 


122  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

upon  His  disciples  what  He  called  His  '*  new  command- 
ment,"— of  a  special  love  to  one  another.  "  A  new 
commandment  I  give  unto  you,  that  ye  love  one  another; 
even  as  I  have  loved  you,  that  ye  also  love  one  another. 
By  this  shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if 
ye  have  love  one  to  another"  (John  xiii.  34,  35). 

(2)  The  second  means  appointed  by  Jesus  for  the  spread 
of  His  Gospel  is  the  missionary  preaching  of  the  Church. 
He  gave  His  disciples  this  great  commission  :  **  Go  ye 
into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  the  whole 
creation"  (Mark  xvi.  15);  "  Go  ye  .  .  .  and  make 
disciples  of  all  the  nations"  (Matt,  xxviii.  19).  With 
this  command  He  gave  great  assurances  for  their  support 
on  actual  missionary  service.  He  gave  the  promise  of 
His  continual  presence:  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway, 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world "  (Matt,  xxviii.  20). 
He  gave  the  assurance  of  His  power  in  heaven,  and  of 
His  providential  sway  over  all  lands  into  which  tliey 
might  go  :  "All  authority  hath  been  given  unto  me  in 
heaven  and  on  earth"  (Matt,  xxviii.  18).  And  in  the 
tenth  chapter  of  St.  Matthew  we  find  a  wonderful 
store  of  counsels  and  assurances  to  missionaries,  some 
only  for  the  time  then  present,  as,  for  example,  that 
they  should  not  enter  into  any  city  of  the  Samari- 
tans ;  but  those  in  the  latter  part  of  the  chapter  meant 
for  all  time.  He  forewarns  of  the  worst  oppositions, 
but  emboldens  against  these  by  His  own  experience, 
and  by  the  thought  of  the  great  future  (vv.  24-28,  34-39). 
He  assures  of  the  care  of  a  Father,  without  whom  not  a 
sparrow  falls  to  the  ground  (vv.  29-31).  And  in  regard 
to  the  dignity  of  their  errand,  and  the  momentous  issue 
of  their  preaching,  He  speaks  in  this  manner  :  "  He  that 
receiveth  you  receiveth  me,  and  he  that  receiveth  me 
receiveth  him  that  sent  me"  (v.  40);  "He  that  re- 
jecteth  you  rejecteth  me ;  and  he  that  rejecteth  me 
rejecteth  him  that  sent  me  "  (Luke  x.   16). 

After  thus  reviewing  what  Jesus  teaches  about  His 
Church,  two  things  may  especially  appeal  to  us  as 
duties — (i)  To    do  what    in   us   lies   to  raise   to  a  far 


ABOUT  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY   123 

higher  level  that  unity  among  disciples  of  Jesus  which 
He  so  values  both  for  its  own  sake  and  for  the  world's 
sake  ;  and  (2)  to  realise,  much  more  than  is  common, 
the  sacredness  of  the  Church  and  of  every  Christian 
assembly.  Who  are  they  who  contribute  most  to  the 
spiritual  power  and  blessing  of  our  meetings  on  the 
Lord's  Day  ?  Not  those  who  are  merely  eminent  in  talent, 
wealth,  or  station,  but  those,  however  obscure  or  weak, 
who  come  most  truly  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  so  secure 
that  presence  of  His  which  is  the  one  source  of  the 
Church's  dignity  and  authority,  and  that  gift  of  His 
Spirit  which  is  the  one  power  of  blessing. 

II.  The  Family 

From  our  study  of  Jesus'  teaching  on  the  Church  we 
turn  to  what  He  says  in  regard  to  the  family.  We  do 
this  with  the  more  interest  because,  according  to  the  testi- 
mony of  all  history,  the  worth  and  blessing  of  men  and 
nations  depend  in  large  measure  on  the  character  and 
ordering  of  the  family  life. 

In  the  case  of  the  people  among  whom  Jesus  was 
born  and  taught,  the  family  life  was  already  at  a  high 
level,  as  we  might  conclude  from  the  two  noble  ex- 
amples of  the  households  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  and  of 
Zacharias  and  Elizabeth.  Such  a  family  life,  with  its 
roots  in  ancient  faith  and  true  devotion,  was  one  of  the 
preparations  for  the  sending  of  the  Son  of  God  into  the 
world  as  Son  of  Man  ;  and  not  even  Christian  family  life 
has  ever  received  such  honour  as  when  the  childhood 
and  youth  of  Jesus  were  intrusted  to  the  care  of  Joseph 
and  Mary.  In  the  belief  of  the  Jews,  according  to  their 
ancient  traditions  and  Scriptures,  the  family,  with  mar- 
riage on  which  it  was  founded,  was  a  divine  institution. 
But  in  one  point  especially  Jesus  corrected  their  practice 
and  understanding  of  the  divine  law.  He  declared 
marriage  to  be,  according  to  God's  original  design  in 
creation,  indissoluble.  He  quoted  words  familiar  to 
His  hearers  from  the  earliest  chapters  of  Genesis  about 


124  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

the  making  of  man  and  woman,  from  which  He  drew 
the  conclusion  in  regard  to  married  persons,  **They  are 
no  more  twain,  but  one  flesh"  (Mark  x.  8);  and  this 
unity  being  of  God,  man  cannot  dissolve  it.  The  prac- 
tice allowed  by  the  law  of  Moses  of  divorce,  on  the  one 
condition  of  a  writing  of  divorcement  being  given — a 
writing  the  drawing  up  of  which  might  indeed  give 
occasion  for  reflection  and  relenting — ^Jesus  declared  to 
be  only  a  concession  to  the  hardness  of  their  hearts,  and 
not  according  to  the  divine  ideal.  Divorce,  He  taught, 
was  permissible  only  when  by  sin  an  actual  dissolution 
of  the  unity  of  the  flesh  had  already  been  made.  Every 
marriage  receives  a  greatly  added  solemnity  from  these 
words  of  Jesus  which  remove  it  out  of  the  category  of 
merely  human  arrangements,  "What  God  hath  joined 
together "  ;  and  law,  whether  of  Church  or  State,  has 
received  a  guidance  not  to  be  refused  from  His  words 
that  follow,  "  Let  not  man  put  asunder"  (Mark  x.  9). 

Another  feature  of  Jesus'  teaching  in  regard  to  the 
family — He  taught  a  reverence  for  young  children  which 
is  of  a  depth,  and  founded  on  reasons,  which  we  still  find 
mysterious.  *'  See  that  ye  despise  not  one  of  these  little 
ones ;  for  I  say  unto  you,  that  in  heaven  their  angels  do 
always  behold  the  face  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven  " 
(Matt,  xviii.  10).  *'  Whoso  shall  receive  one  such  little 
child  in  my  name  receiveth  me  "  (Matt,  xviii.  5). 

When  we  ask  what  is  the  relation  between  the  family 
and  the  Church,  both  being  divine  institutions,  or 
between  the  family  and  the  kingdom  of  God,  we  may 
answer  shortly  that  the  family  is  a  divine  institution  of 
the  natural  order,  belonging  to  man's  original  creation  ; 
the  Church  is  a  divine  institution  of  the  supernatural 
order.  In  the  Church  the  kingdom  of  God  is,  imper- 
fectly indeed,  but  truly  realised.  But  the  family  is  also 
raised  into  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  becomes  a  part  of 
it,  when  the  heads  of  it  are  united  to  Christ  by  faith 
in  Him.  To  justify  this,  let  it  be  remembered  that, 
according  to  the  original  and  unchanging  order  of  family 
life,  children  are  dependent  on  their  parents,  both  in 


ABOUT  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY    125 

respect  of  their  body  and  their  mind.  Not  only  are 
they  under  the  authority  and  discipline  of  their  parents, 
but  their  natural  relation  to  their  father  and  mother  is 
such  that  they  instinctively  adopt  their  parents'  ideas 
and  receive  from  them,  almost  involuntarily,  the  great 
bulk  of  their  beliefs.  The  family  is  an  organic  unity, 
and  the  ethical  and  spiritual  life  of  the  parents  is  a  vital 
force  which  flows  into  and  gives  its  character  to  the  life 
of  the  children.  Accordingly,  if  the  parents  are  in 
Christ  the  children  are  also  in  Christ.  The  principle  is 
expressed  in  the  maxim  of  St.  Paul  :  "If  the  root  is  holy, 
so  are  the  branches"  (Rom.  xi.  16).  And  that  this  is 
recognised  by  Jesus  we  see  from  the  fact  that  He  accepted 
the  faith  of  the  parent  as  sufficient  ground  for  bestowing 
blessing  on  the  child.  When  the  demoniac  boy  was 
brought  to  Him,  He  said  to  the  father:  *'All  things  are 
possible  to  him  that  believeth,"  and  when  the  father 
cried  out,  "  I  believe  ;  help  thou  mine  unbelief"  (Mark 
ix.  23,  24),  Jesus  healed  the  child.  So  again,  when 
parents  brought  young  children  to  Him,  He  said,  "Suffer 
the  little  children  to  come  unto  me  ;  forbid  them  not  : 
for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  God.  .  .  ,  And  he 
took  them  in  his  arms,  and  blessed  them,  laying  his  hands 
upon  them"  (Mark  x.  14-16).  We  conclude  that  the 
Christian  family,  as  a  whole,  is  part  of  the  kingdom  of 
God.  The  children  are  to  be  brought  up  as  in  recon- 
ciliation with  God  from  the  beginning  of  their  lives. 
They  are  "  in  the  Lord,"  as  St.  Paul  assumes  (see  Ephes. 
vi.  i),  and  are  to  be  taught  from  the  first  that  they  belong 
to  Christ  and  can  call  God  "Father."  Their  baptism 
does  not  bestow  this  standing  on  them,  as  they  have  it 
by  birth  within  a  Christian  family.  But  baptism  gives 
solemn  assurance  of  the  grace  wherein  they  stand,  and 
may  be,  in  the  first  instance,  a  great  help  to  the  faith  of 
their  parents,  while  to  themselves,  as  they  are  afterwards 
instructed  regarding  it,  it  may  be  a  powerful  means  of 
moving  them  to  keep  the  rank,  use  the  privileges,  and 
live  in  the  hopes  of  children  of  Grod. 


126  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 


CHAPTER  XIII 

HIS  TEACHING  ABOUT  THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD 

What  is  the  world's  destined  end  ? — Answers  from  human 
speculation — The  answer  of  Jesus.  i.  A  glorious 
issue  in  the  victory  of  good  over  evil.  2.  This  to  be 
reached,  not  simply  by  gradual  progress,  but  by  the 
advent  of  the  Son  of  Man.  3.  At  His  advent  a 
general  resurrection  and  a  general  judgment — Prin- 
ciples of  the  judgment  :  (i)  The  judgment  of  the 
Church  will  be  according  to  two  tests,  (a)  of  character, 
or  readiness  for  His  coming,  and  {b)  of  service  done  to 
Him — (2)  The  judgment  of  those  outside  the  Church 
will  be  according  to  their  conduct  toward  the  Son  of 
Man  in  His  brethren — By  the  general  judgment 
all  arrears  of  justice  will  be  made  up :  universal 
restoration  is  not  taught.  4.  The  time  of  the  end — 
Double  answer  of  Jesus  ;  this  accounted  for.  5.  The 
complex  truth  of  our  Lord's  coming  presented  under 
three  heads,  (i)  dynamical,  (2)  historical,  (3)  eschato- 
logical.  6.  Attitude  befitting  the  Church  and  disciples 
of  Jesus — to  hope,  to  watch,  and  to  pray. 

A  ^ /"HAT  is  this  world  coming  to  ?  Will  the  history  of 
*  '  mankind  have  an  end,  and  what  kind  of  an  end  ? 
Has  that  history  a  purpose  running  through  it,  and  a 
destined  issue  to  which  it  advances  ?  Who  will  give  us 
an  answer  to  these  and  similar  questions,  which  may  well 
command  the  interest  of  any  human  soul  ? 

If  we  ask  men  of  science  they  will  answer,  perhaps, 
that  they  infer,  from  what  comes  under  their  observation, 
one  certain  end  to  human  life  in  the  world.  They  find 
that  the  heat  of  the  sun  diminishes.     That  great  source 


ABOUT  THE  END  OF  THE   WORLD       127 

of  heat  and  support  of  life  seems  to  be  slowly  using  up 
the  materials  by  which  its  fire  is  sustained.  The  time  is 
perhaps  calculable — mathematically  calculable — on  the 
lapse  of  which  the  sun  will  be  exhausted,  or  its  heat  sink 
so  low  that  this  earth  will  no  longer  be  capable  of  sus- 
taining human  life,  and  that  life  must  finally  expire. 
This  issue  is  certain,  if  things  go  on  as  they  are  doing. 
It  is  indeed  infinitely  remote,  but  even  so,  if  it  be  the 
true  issue,  if  man  must  go  down  to  the  pit  and  all  his 
thoughts  perish,  human  life  and  history,  ending  in 
nothing,  are  smitten  as  with  a  blight.  Their  interest 
and  worth  have  departed. 

If  we  put  our  question  to  moralists,  who  judge  of  the 
future  of  mankind  by  what  they  see  of  human  progress 
along  the  line  of  the  conflict  between  good  and  evil, 
some  of  them  may  answer  (as  did  Mr.  Froude)  that 
there  is  no  prospect  of  right  ever  prevailing  completely 
over  wrong,  good  over  evil,  in  this  world.  In  human 
life  the  forces  of  good  and  evil  are  so  evenly  balanced 
that  the  struggle  between  them  is  likely  to  go  on  indefin- 
itely without  the  good  gaining  any  complete  victory. 
Others,  again,  of  more  hopeful  temperament,  may  be 
found  to  expect  for  the  world  and  human  society  that  they 
will  grow  better  and  better,  make  moral  and  social  pro- 
gress gradually  thit  surely,  till  this  become  a  perfect  world, 
and  human  life  become  entirely  happy  and  entirely  good. 

Who  shall  tell  us  which  of  these  answers  is  true,  or 
whether  any  of  them  is  even  near  the  truth  ?  Is  it  not 
strange  that  with  all  the  powers  men  possess,  and  all  the 
discoveries  they  have  made,  they  are  so  little  able  to  say, 
from  their  own  mind  and  knowledge,  whither  they  are 
going,  and  what  their  history  is  tending  towards  ?  No 
sure  answer  can  we  get  from  human  reason  or  speculation, 
which  on  this  subject  has  taken  many  strange  and  con- 
tradictory shapes.  Let  us  turn  for  an  answer  to  Him 
who  speaks  to  us  in  the  Gospels.  Why  do  we  listen 
with  confidence  to  Jesus  speaking  of  the  future  of  man  ? 
Because  we  feel  as  we  listen  that  He  knows  God,  and  is 
in  communion  with  the  Ruler  of  all  things.     He  speaks 


128  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

therefore  with  authority,  and  no  words  command  as  His 
do  the  assent  of  our  conscience. 

His  teaching  in  regard  to  the  **  last  things  "  is  to  be 
found  chiefly  in  the  great  discourse  recorded  in  Matt. 
xxiv.  and  xxv.  (of  which  shorter  reports  are  in  Mark  xiii. 
and  Luke  xxi.)  Also  in  Luke  xvii.  22-37  ;  xix.  11-27  ; 
John  V.  28,  29  ;  and  there  are  incidental  references  by 
Jesus  to  "that  day"  or  "the  last  day  "  in  many  other 
places. 

The  following  main  conclusions  may  be  drawn  from 
this  body  of  prophetic  teaching  : — 

1.  We  learn  that  human  history  is  not  uncertain  and 
aimless  ;  it  has  a  goal  toward  which  it  is  directed.  It 
will  have  a  glorious  issue.  The  long  conflict  between 
good  and  evil  will  come  to  an  end,  and  the  right  will 
prevail.  The  kingdom  of  God  was  the  great  subject  of 
Jesus'  preaching,  and  an  essential  feature  of  it  is  that, 
while  the  kingdom  is  here  amongst  us,  even  in  us,  in 
germ  and  beginning,  it  is  one  day  to  attain  to  perfection. 
The  kingdom  which  we  now  describe  as  a  kingdom  of 
grace  is  to  become  a  kingdom  of  glory.  This  is  the  final 
answer  to  the  prayer  which  He  puts  into  our  mouths, 
*'  Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done,  as  in  heaven, 
so  on  earth." 

2.  This  future  glory  is  not  to  be  reached  in  the  way 
simply  of  gradual  improvement  and  progress.  The  ad- 
vance of  the  Gospel  does  indeed  prepare  for  it.  So,  in 
a  measure,  do  inventions  like  that  of  printing  and  modem 
means  of  rapid  intercourse,  by  which  human  progress  has 
been  hastened.  There  are  also  crises  in  human  history, 
"  days  of  the  Lord,"  in  which  the  end  draws  nearer.  But 
the  great  issue  is  to  be  brought  in  by  a  supreme  crisis  and 
catastrophe,  when  the  Son  of  Man  Himself  shall  appear. 
He  is  the  King  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  It  began  in 
Him.  He  was  the  founder  and  the  nucleus  of  it.  He 
supplies  the  force  by  which  it  grows  and  prevails.  He  is 
also  the  Lord  of  Providence  and  of  Nature  (Matt.  xxviiL 
x8),  making  them  subservient  to  it.    And  by  His  visible 


ABOUT  THE  END  OF  THE    WORLD       129 

coming  it  is  to  leap  to  fulfilment.  He  is  to  interrupt  the 
slow  course  of  history  and  bring  in  the  kingdom  in  per- 
fect form,  completely  victorious  over  sin  and  evil.  *'  The 
Son  of  man  shall  send  forth  his  angels,  and  they  shall 
gather  out  of  his  kingdom  all  things  that  cause  stumbling, 
and  them  that  do  iniquity,  .  .  .  Then  shall  the  righteous 
shine  forth  as  the  sun  in  the  kingdom  of  their  Father  " 
(Matt.  xiii.  41-43). 

3.  This  event  is  not  to  concern  only  the  generation 
living  at  His  appearing,  but  all  men.  At  the  coming  of 
the  Son  of  Man  there  will  be  a  general  resurrection  of  the 
dead  and  a  general  judgment.  These  together  form  the 
stupendous  issue  often  spoken  of  by  Jesus  as  *'  that  day." 
And  from  first  to  last  in  our  Lord's  teaching  He  assumes 
that  He  Himself  will  then  be  the  Judge  of  all  men.  "  The 
hour  Cometh,  in  which  all  that  are  in  the  tombs  shall 
hear  his  voice,  and  shall  come  forth  ;  ^  they  that  have 
done  good,  unto  the  resurrection  of  life  ;  and  they  that 
have  done  ill,  unto  the  resurrection  of  judgment "  (John 
V.  28,  29).  "The  Son  of  man  shall  come  in  the  glory 
of  his  Father  with  his  angels ;  and  then  shall  he  render 
unto  every  man  according  to  his  deeds  "  (Matt.  xvi.  27). 

In  the  latter  part  of  His  great  prophetic  discourse 
(Matt.  xxiv.  45  to  XXV.  46)  Jesus  gives  visions  of  the 
judgment,  and  though  these  are  largely  in  the  form  of 
parable  and  symbol,  we  are  shown  distinctly  the  great 
principles  in  accordance  with  which  He  will  judge  men. 
(i)  First,  we  learn  how  He  will  judge  the  Church. 
The  parables  of  the  two  servants,  the  ten  virgins,  and 
the  talents  (Matt.  xxiv.  45-xxv.  30)  all  plainly  refer  to 
••His  own  servants,"  and  the  sum  of  their  teaching  is 
that  these  will  at  the  great  day  be  judged  according  to 
two  tests,  {a)  that  of  character^  and  [b)  that  of  service  done 
to  Christ.  We  might  have  expected  the  great  test  to  be 
that  oi  faith  in  Jesus,  but  His  teaching  evidently  is  that 

1  That  the  resurrection  of  good  and  bad  will  be  at  one  time,  and 
that  the  resurrection  of  believers  in  Jesus  will  not  precede  by  a  long 
interval  that  of  others,  seems  implied  in  John  v.  28  (above  quoted), 
and  in  the  promise  of  Jesus  to  every  one  who  believes  in  Him,  "  I 
will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day  "  (John  vi.  40,  44,  54). 


I30  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

He  will  judge  by  the  fruits  of  faith  in  character  and  work. 
So  the  judgment  will  be  on  grounds  that  befit  an  open 
public  judgment — one  which  will  approve  itself  to  the 
general  conscience  of  mankind,  as  well  as  to  the  Judge 
Himself.  The  first  parable  shows  office-bearers,  the 
second,  ordinary  members  of  the  Church  judged  according 
to  character^  and  the  test  of  character  used  is  readiness 
for  the  coming  of  their  Lord.  This  will  disclose  the 
state  of  their  hearts.  If  they  have  had  pleasure  in  the 
delay  of  His  coming,  and  so  have  given  themselves  to 
sinful  indulgences  (xxiv.  49),  or  if,  in  the  general  dying 
out  of  a  near  expectation  of  His  coming  (xxv.  5),  they 
are  found  immersed  in  worldly  things,  and  through  apathy 
about  their  higher  life  have  failed  to  make  provision  for 
it  (xxv.  3),  they  will  be  condemned — terribly  punished 
for  sin,  sadly  excluded  for  apathetic  neglect.  But  if 
they  have  been  faithful  to  their  spiritual  charge,  and 
have  cherished  their  spiritual  hopes,  they  will  be  won- 
derfully rewarded  (xxiv.  47),  and  admitted  into  the 
eternal  joy  (xxv.  10). 

In  the  glass  of  the  third  parable — that  of  the  talents — 
we  see  the  servants  of  Jesus  judged  by  Him  at  the  great 
day,  according  to  the  service  they  have  done  Him.  Those 
who  have  used  well  for  Him  the  opportunities  of  life  will 
receive  His  great  commendation ;  they  will  enter  into 
His  joy,  and  (as  the  parable  of  the  pounds  in  Luke  xix. 
teaches)  they  will  be  promoted  to  higher  service,  each 
in  proportion  to  his  faithfulness  and  success.  But  "  the 
unprofitable  servant "  who  has  thought  only  of  himself, 
and  has  had  no  spirit  of  enterprise  for  Christ  in  his  sphere 
of  life,  will  be  "cast  into  the  outer  darkness;  there 
shall  be  the  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth. " 

(2)  Next,  in  the  vision  of  judgment  given  at  the  close 
of  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  St.  Matthew — than  which 
nothing  grander  has  ever  been  written  for  men — we  find 
on  what  principle  those  will  be  judged  who  have  lived 
in  times  and  countries  which  were  without  the  knowledge 
of  Jesus.  That  this  passage  refers  to  that  great  multi- 
tude we  conclude  (a)  from  its  place  in  the  discourse — 


ABOUT  THE  END  OF  THE   WORLD       131 

after  the  parables  of  judgment  on  the  Church  ;  (<5)  from 
the  words  "  before  him  shall  be  gathered  all  the  naiionsy^* 
which  in  the  usage  of  the  time  meant  the  heathen ;  [c) 
from  the  replies  in  verses  37  and  44,  from  which  it  is 
plain  that,  while  all  servants  of  Christ  know  that  in 
ministering  to  their  brethren  they  minister  to  Him,  those 
here  judged  will  not  know  it  till  that  great  day,  when  it 
will  come  to  them  as  a  joyful  or  a  sad  surprise.  Among 
the  heathen,  then,  the  great  separation  will  be  made 
according  to  their  conduct  toward  the  Son  of  Man,  as 
shown  in  their  treatment  of  His  brethren.  What  they 
have  done  to  their  fellow-men  Jesus  will  take  as  done  to 
Himself.  "I  was  an  hungered,"  He  will  say,  "and 
ye  gave  me  meat."  The  full  grandeur  of  life,  the  height 
of  its  use  in  merciful  ministration  to  human  needs,  the 
depth  of  its  misuse  in  selfish  neglect  of  them,  will  burst 
upon  their  view  when  the  Son  of  Man  on  His  throne  of 
glory  shall  say,  "  Ye  did  it  unto  me."  "  Ye  did  it  not 
unto  me."  *'And  these  shall  go  away  into  eternal 
punishment :  but  the  righteous  into  eternal  life." 

Such  an  issue  of  blessing  to  the  righteous  and  woe  to 
the  unrighteous  fully  satisfies  the  human  conscience,  and 
ends  the  perplexity  which  has  been  felt  at  the  success  of 
the  wicked,  and  the  many  defects  of  justice  which  we 
see  in  the  lives  of  men.  All  arrears  of  justice  will  then 
be  fully  made  up.  "  There  is  nothing  covered,  that  shall 
not  be  revealed ;  and  hid,  that  shall  not  be  known"  (Matt. 
X.  26).  "Every  idle  word  that  men  shall  speak,  they  shall 
give  account  thereof  in  the  day  of  judgment  "  (Matt.  xii. 
36).  But  does  this  issue  satisfy  the  heart  ?  Do  we  still 
long  for  a  kingdom  of  glory  which  shall  include  all,  and 
into  which  even  the  lost  shall  be  ultimately  brought,  the 
works  of  the  devil  being  completely  destroyed  and  the 
love  of  God  completely  victorious  ? 

That  such  a  longing  is  in  harmony  with  God's  own 
heart  we  may  certainly  conclude  from  His  name  of 
♦*  Father."  We  are  never  liker  God,  *'  who  willeth  that 
all  men  should  be  saved"  (i  Tim.  ii.  5),  than  when 
we  so  desire.      But  if  we  ask,  Shall  this  lunging  be 


132  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

satisfied  ?  our  present  knowledge  hardly  justifies  a  con- 
fident answer.  The  words  in  the  Gospels  which  we 
translate  *'  the  end  of  the  world  "  mean  rather  "  the  con- 
summation of  the  age."  They  signify  the  winding  up 
of  a  dispensation.  And  the  word  which  we  translate 
"eternal"  along  with  "punishment"  and  along  with 
"life"  is,  more  literally,  "  age  -  lasting. "  There  are 
those,  accordingly,  who  suppose  that  in  this  prophecy 
Jesus  tells  us  of  the  transition  to  a  new  dispensation,  and 
of  how  that  dispensation  will  go  on,  but  that  He  does 
not  tell  us  what  its  issue  will  be.  In  regard  to  that 
issue,  they  would  hope  greatly  for  all  men,  even  for  those 
who  were  condemned  at  the  Great  Day  of  this  age.  The 
whole  solemn  question,  which  is  raised  also  in  other 
forms,  cannot  be  discussed  in  our  short  space.  It  must 
be  said,  however,  that  the  language  of  our  Lord  power- 
fully conveys  the  impression  that  this  present  life  is  the 
time  of  opportunity ;  and  in  the  last  view  which  He 
gives  of  men  they  are  still  shown  as  divided  into  two 
companies.  A  doctrine  of  universal  restoration  cannot 
be  built  up  on  the  explicit  teaching  of  Jesus  in  regard  to 
the  "last  things." 

4.  One  question  in  regard  to  the  end  and  the  coming 
of  Jesus  remains — the  time  of  it.  On  this  subject  we  are 
met  by  the  great  difficulty  that  His  words  seem  contra- 
dictory. He  says  expressly,  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you, 
this  generation  shall  not  pass  away,  till  all  these  things 
be  accomplished"  (Matt.  xxiv.  34).  He  said  also  on 
another  occasion,  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  there  be  some 
of  them  that  stand  here,  which  shall  in  no  wise  taste  of 
death  till  they  see  the  Son  of  man  coming  in  his  kingdom  " 
(Matt.  xvi.  28).  It  has  been  pressed  by  Gibbon,  Renan, 
and  others,  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Jesus  expected 
the  end  of  the  world  within  a  human  lifetime.  .  Of  course, 
if  He  did  so  He  was  mistaken,  and  they  argue  that  if 
mistaken  in  this  He  was  mistaken  in  the  whole  matter ; 
that  His  forecast  of  the  future  is  only  a  devout  imagination. 
But  we  find  in  His  discourse  different,  even  contrary, 
utterances  in  regard  to  the  time  of  the  end.     He  declares 


ABOUT  THE  END  OF  THE    WORLD       133 

that  He  does  not  even  Himself  know  when  it  shall  be. 
"  Of  that  day  or  that  hour  knoweth  no  one,  not  even 
th«  angels  in  heaven,  neither  the  Son,  but  the  Father " 
(Mark  xiii.  32).  And,  instead  of  the  end  being  sure  to 
come  within  one  generation,  He  often  uses  language  that 
implies  long  delay.  He  likens  the  Gospel  in  its  work- 
ing to  a  little  leaven  leavening  the  whole  lump  of  the 
world,  and  no  one  who  knew  human  nature  as  He  did 
could  expect  this  process  to  complete  itself  in  a  genera- 
tion. He  says  "  This  gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  be 
preached  in  the  whole  world  for  a  testimony  unto  all  the 
nations  ;  and  then  shall  the  end  come  "  (Matt.  xxiv.  14). 
He  anticipates  the  evil  servant  saying  in  his  heart.  My 
lord  delayeth  his  coming.  In  the  parable  He  speaks  of 
the  bridegroom  tarrying.  He  says  (Luke  xxi.  24), 
"Jerusalem  shall  be  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles,  until 
the  times  of  the  Gentiles  be  fulfilled,"  from  which  we 
understand  that  as  the  Jews  had  ages  of  opportunity  before 
the  judgment  on  their  nation,  so  the  Gentiles  are  to  have 
ages  of  opportunity  before  the  last  judgment.  How  are 
we  to  account  for  this  double  manner  of  utterance  on  our 
Lord's  part — the  time  of  His  coming  now  approximately 
known,  now  quite  unknown ;  now  near,  now  far ;  now 
unexpectedly  soon,  now  unexpectedly  late  ? 

One  great  step  is  made  towards  accounting  for  it 
when  we  perceive  that  two  events  are  both  spoken  of  as 
His  coming,  which  are  far  apart  in  historical  time,  viz. 
(i)  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  which  happened  almost 
within  that  generation  (a.d.  70),  and  was,  we  believe, 
the  judgment  of  the  Jewish  Church  and  nation  ;  and  (2) 
the  last  judgment  on  the  Christian  Church  and  all  nations. 
Plainly  in  the  early  part  of  our  Lord's  discourse  the 
actual  city  of  Jerusalem  and  its  last  siege  are  chiefly 
spoken  of.  "  When  ye  see  the  abomination  of  desolation 
.  .  .  standing  in  the  holy  place  .  .  .  then  let  them  that 
are  in  Judea  flee  unto  the  mountains"  (Matt.  xxiv.  15). 
This  warning,  taken  literally,  enabled  the  followers  of 
Jesus  to  make  a  timely  escape  from  the  siege  of  Jerusalem. 
But  further  on,  in  w.  29,  30,  31,  and  in  the  last  grand 


134  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

vision,  in  chapter  xxv.,  beginning  **  When  the  Son  of  man 
shall  come  in  his  glory,"  it  is  plain  that  the  "  end  of  the 
world"  and  last  judgment  are  spoken  of.  Now  we 
believe  we  are  right  to  understand  *•  this  generation  shall 
not  pass,"  etc.,  as  fulfilled  in  that  coming  of  Jesus  in 
A.D.  70,  and  the  words,  "of  that  day  and  that  hour 
knoweth  no  one,"  as  referring  to  the  last  judgment. 

But  why  are  these  two  far -separate  events  mingled 
in  this  prophetic  discourse  so  inextricably — so  con- 
fusedly ^  we  might  even  say  ?  We  answer  that  apparently 
our  Lord  did  not  intend  to  separate  distinctly  for  His 
immediate  disciples  those  two  great  comings  of  His, 
and  so  they  might  be  unable  to  tell  of  them  separately 
and  in  order  in  their  report  of  His  words.  They  are  twin 
comings,  each  ending  an  age  or  dispensation,  the  one 
the  Jewish,  the  other  the  Christian.  The  one  is  so 
typical  of  the  other  that  often  the  words  which  are  true 
of  the  first  are  true  in  a  wider  sense  of  the  second.  And 
while  history  has  an  order  of  its  own,  and  must  be 
chronological,  prophecy — like  poetry — has  quite  another 
order.  The  great  aim  of  prophecy  is,  not  to  anticipate 
history,  but  to  give  moral  impression  and  keep  the  soul 
in  a  right  attitude  to  God.  With  such  an  aim  our  Lord 
might  choose  to  mingle,  rather  than  separate,  these  two 
great  stages  of  His  coming,  which  for  His  own  genera- 
tion, and  from  His  own  point  of  view,  were  blended 
together,  as  two  snow -covered  peaks  rising  before  us, 
the  one  behind  the  other,  form  one  feature  in  a  land- 
scape, and  not  till  we  cross  the  nearer  range  does  the 
great  hollow  between  them  claim  to  be  noted. 

5.  The  "  coming  "  of  Jesus,  as  spoken  of  by  Himself, 
is  very  complex  when  we  take  into  view,  besides  the 
discourses  in  Matthew  xxiv.  and  xxv.,  also  the  saying 
"I  come  unto  you"  in  John  xiv.  18,  and  other  words 
in  that  farewell  discourse ;  and  it  may  complete  our 
account  of  this  subject,  and  bring  what  has  been  said 
in  this  chapter  into  harmony  with  what  has  been  said  before 
(in  chapter  xi. ),  if  we  say  that  the  great  truth  and  hope 
of  our  Lord's  coming  may  be  more  fully  presented  under 


ABOUT  THE  END  OF  THE   WORLD       135 

three  heads,  (i)  It  is  dynamical.  His  promise,  *'  I  come 
unto  you  "  (John  xiv.  18),  has  been  fulfilled  in  His  coming 
by  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  power  {dynamis)  of  the  new 
life  of  His  people  and  of  the  spread  of  His  kingdom. 
(2)  It  is  historical.  Jesus  comes,  in  a  very  important 
sense,  in  those  great  "days  of  the  Lord"  which  devout 
men  recognise,  those  crises  of  judgment  in  the  history  of 
nations  and  churches,  of  which  notable  examples  are  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  the  fall  of  Rome,  the  Reforma- 
tion, the  French  Revolution,  and  historical  events  of  our 
own  time.  There  is  accordingly  a  judgment  of  the  world 
by  Jesus  that  is  continuous,  and  in  these  two  aspects — the 
dynamical  and  the  historical — the  coming  of  Jesus  is  rather 
a  process  than  a  single  definite  event.  This  may  explain 
to  us  His  solemn  and  difficult  saying  to  the  High  Priest, 
**  Henceforth,"  that  is,  from  this  time  onward,  "ye  shall 
see  the  Son  of  man  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  power, 
and  coming  on  the  clouds  of  heaven  "  (Matt.  xxvi.  64). 
But  this  continuous  process,  whether  dynamical  or  his- 
torical, does  not  exhaust  the  truth  of  our  Lord's  coming. 
We  cannot  accept  as  the  whole  truth  in  this  matter  the 
maxim  that  is  pressed  upon  us  by  many,  **  The  history  of 
the  world  is  the  judgment  of  the  world."  We  cannot  re- 
gard the  fore-view  which  Jesus  gives  of  the  last  judgment 
as  if  it  were  the  summing  up  in  one  vision  of  a  world-long 
process.  We  believe  from  His  teaching  in  a  coming  of 
Jesus  which  may  be  called  (3)  eschatological  (from  eschata^ 
last  things).  We  believe  that  He  will  come  in  visible 
glory  for  a  final  judgment,  in  which  the  divine  govern- 
ment will  be  completely  vindicated,  and  decision  given 
on  every  individual  life.  And  we  believe  that  one  special 
feature  of  this  last  judgment  will  be  its  openness ;  that 
its  justice  will  be  a  public  justice,  the  sentence  public, 
the  grounds  of  it  public,  and  the  whole  congregation  of 
God's  creatures  made  witnesses  to  it. 

6.  With  this  sublimely  great  event  in  prospect,  certain 
to  happen,  uncertain  only  in  its  time,  what  should  be  the 
attitude  of  the  Church  and  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus  ? 
He  Himself  declares  this.     They  should  hope^  and  they 


136  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

should  watch.  They  will  hope  for  that  great  day  when 
Christ  shall  appear  as  King ;  they  will  love  His  appear- 
ing ;  they  will  have  a  hope  mingled  with  awe  in  the 
thought  of  His  words  from  the  judgment-seat,  and  a 
great  comfort  of  hope  in  regard  to  the  kingdom  of  glory 
which  He  will  bring  in.  "  When  these  things  begin  to 
come  to  pass  (He  says),  look  up,  and  lift  up  your  heads ; 
because  your  redemption  draweth  nigh  "  (Luke  xxi.  28). 
But  again  and  again,  along  with  words  of  hope,  in 
these  discourses  regarding  the  end,  there  mingle,  like 
the  tollings  of  a  bell  of  warning,  the  calls  to  watch. 
"  Watch  ye  at  every  season,  making  supplication,  that 
ye  may  prevail  to  escape  all  these  things  that  shall  come 
to  pass,  and  to  stand  before  the  Son  of  man  "  (Luke  xxi. 
36).  **  And  what  I  say  unto  you  I  say  unto  all,  Watch  " 
(Mark  xiii.  37).  This  does  not  mean  that  we  are  to 
cultivate  an  excited  expectation  that  the  end  is  im- 
minent. Still  less  does  it  mean  that  they  best  obey  our 
Lord's  command  who  seek  by  intricate  calculations  to 
wring  out  of  Scripture  the  secret  of  the  actual  year  of 
His  coming.  Surely  it  is  wrong  for  men  thus  to  try  to 
know  and  persuade  others  that  they  know  what  **  the 
Father  hath  set  within  his  own  authority  "  (Acts  i.  7), 
and  what  was  hid  even  from  the  Son.  Speculations  and 
prophesyings  of  this  sort  have  often  brought  discredit  on 
the  Christian  faith.  By  watching  our  Lord  means  a 
constant  wakefulness  in  regard  to  unseen  verities  or 
hopes,  a  self- recollection  and  consequent  readiness  for 
either  of  these  two  great  events  which  God,  for  our 
good,  has  made  uncertain — Christ's  coming  to  us  and 
our  going  to  Him,  His  advent  and  our  death.  And  the 
chief  effect  of  this  wakefulness  will  be  that  we  shall  the 
more  earnestly  seek  to  live  by  Christ  present  with  us 
now.  Communion  with  Jesus  now  is  the  great  source 
and  secret  of  Christian  holiness  and  fruitfulness,  and  the 
best  effect  which  the  anticipation  of  His  coming  again 
can  have  is  that  we  keep  our  inner  being,  which  is 
unseen  by  men,  constantly  open  to  Jesus,  conscious  of 
His  fellowship,  receptive  of  His  grace,  and  obedient  to 


ABOUT  THE  END  OF  THE    WORLD       137 


His  words.  This  receptiveness  is  above  all  else  in  a 
Christian's  attitude  ;  for  to  live  apart  from  Him — inter- 
course with  Him  suspended — is  to  have  the  divine  life  in 
us  shrink  and  wither.  "As  the  branch  cannot  bear 
fruit  of  itself,  except  it  abide  in  the  vine  ;  so  neither  can 
ye,  except  ye  abide  in  me."  '*  Apart  from  me  ye  can  do 
nothing  "  (John  xv.  4,  5)-  Besides  receptivity,  watch- 
fulness implies,  in  a  Christian,  activity— \ht  diligence  in 
the  Master's  work  which  may  enable  the  servant  to  say 
at  the  great  day,  ♦•  Lord,  thy  pound  hath  made  ten 
pounds  more"  (Luke  xix.  16).  It  implies  also  what 
may  be  called  a  Christian  asceticism  in  view  of  tempta- 
tion. Though  Jesus  in  His  teaching  regards  all  our 
nature  as  from  God,  and  to  be  freely  exercised,  yet  He 
says,  "  If  thy  hand  or  thy  foot  causeth  thee  to  stumble, 
cut  it  off,  and  cast  it  from  thee  :  it  is  good  for  thee  to 
enter  into  life  maimed  or  halt,  rather  than  having  two 
hands  or  two  feet  to  be  cast  into  the  eternal  fire.  And 
if  thine  eye  causeth  thee  to  stumble,  pluck  it  out,  and  cast 
it  from  thee  :  it  is  good  for  thee  to  enter  into  life  with 
one  eye,  rather  than  having  two  eyes  to  be  cast  into  the 
hell  of  fire  "  (Matt,  xviii.  8,  9).  That  is  to  say,  good  as 
a  complete  life  is,  in  which  all  our  powers  are  exercised, 
a  Christian  who  watchfully  considers  his  own  suscepti- 
bilities and  circumstances  will  be  right  sometimes  to 
limit  or  deny  himself,  choosing  a  safe  life  rather  than  a 

full  one. 

With  watching  Jesus  joins  prayer.  "Watch  and 
pray"  (Matt.  xxvi.  41).  "Watch  ye  at  every  season, 
making  supplication  "  (Luke  xxi.  36).  "  Take  ye  heed, 
watch  and  pray"  (Mark  xiii.  33).  And  here  attention 
may  be  called  to  the  wealth  of  our  Lord's  teaching  in 
regard  to  prayer.  (See  Matt.  vi.  5-15;  vii.  7-1 1;  ix. 
38;  xviii.  19;  xxvi.  36-42;  Mark  i.  35;  vi.  46;  ix. 
29;  xi.  22-25;  Luke  ix.  18,  28;  xi.  1-13  ;  xviii.  1-8; 
xxiii.  34,  46;  John  xiv.  13;  xv.  7;  xvi.  23,  26,  27; 
xvii.)  Few  things  in  religion  have  had  so  many  and 
apparently  strong  objections  urged  against  them  as 
prayer.       The   uniformity   of  Nature   has    been   urged 


138  OUR  LORD'S  TEACHING 

against  it,  and  the  consequent  unreasonableness  of  prayer 
about  things  that  are  included  within  the  sweep  of  natural 
law.  The  omniscience  of  God  and  His  fore-appointment 
of  all  things  have  been  urged  against  it,  and  the  con- 
sequent unreasonableness  of  prayer  that  attempts  to  move 
Him  from  what  He  has  in  His  wisdom  chosen  and 
decreed.  All  that  prayer  can  do,  it  has  been  said,  is  to 
reconcile  us  to  God's  will.  A  Christian  praying  to  God 
is  like  a  man  in  a  boat,  who,  pulling  by  a  rope,  seems  to 
draw  the  land  to  himself,  while  in  reality  he  but  draws 
himself  to  the  land.  But  no  arguments  against  the  real 
efficacy  of  prayer  can  outweigh  with  us  the  revelation 
of  the  Father,  the  promises  of  Jesus,  and  the  instinct 
and  experience  of  human  hearts.  Not  only  does  Jesus 
say,  **  Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you  ;  seek,  and  ye 
shall  find  ;  knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you " 
(Matt.  vii.  7) ;  He  also  encourages  us  to  believe  that 
human  entreaty  does  influence  the  choice  and  action 
of  God ;  that,  as  a  Father,  He  is  entreatable  by  His 
children ;  that  perseverance  and  importunity  in  prayer 
prevail  to  obtain  what  was  not  at  once  granted  (see 
Luke  xviii.  i-8 ;  xi.  5-8).  And  prayer  from  those 
who  abide  in  Jesus,  and  in  whom  His  words  abide — 
prayer  in  the  name  of  Jesus — prayer  which  springs  up  in 
the  heart  through  His  indwelling  and  working — to  this 
prayer  absolute  promises  of  answer  are  given  (John  xiv. 
13 ;  XV.  16 ;  xvi.  23,  24,  26,  27).  Plainly,  prayer  is, 
like  preaching  and  sacraments,  a  divine  mystery ;  and  a 
deeper  philosophy  of  God  and  of  man,  and  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  in  man,  will,  without  doubt,  justify  the  teaching 
and  promises  of  Jesus.  *'  Howbeit,"  said  He  Himself, 
in  a  strangely  solemn  prophetic  reproof,  "  when  the  Son 
of  man  cometh,  shall  he  find  faith  on  the  earth  ?  "  (Luke 
xviii.  8).  

O  quickly  come,  dread  Judge  of  all ; 

For,  awful  though  Thine  advent  be, 
All  shadows  from  the  truth  will  fall, 

And  falsehood  die,  in  sight  of  Thee. 


ABOUT  THE  END  OF  THE    WORLD       139 


Here  we  end  our  study  of  the  words  of  Jesus,  which, 
the  more  they  are  pondered,  used,  and  compared  with 
all  other  wisdom,  approve  themselves  the  more  as 
supreme  in  value  and  authority.  Whichever  way  we 
turn  we  feel  that  from  Him  comes  the  one  great  and 
sure  light  of  life.  Nearly  two  thousand  years  have 
passed,  bringing  many  conflicts  and  many  discoveries  ; 
our  own  age  is  passing  with  its  new  problems  and  great 
widening  of  men's  thoughts  ;  yet  still  the  words  rise 
to  our  lips  as  they  rose  to  the  lips  of  Peter,  conscious  of 
mysteries  he  could  not  penetrate  —  "Lord,  to  whom 
shall  we  go  ?  thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life. "  But 
precious  as  are  the  words  of  Jesus,  the  faith  of  the 
Church  recognises  that  He  is  Himself  greater  than  all 
His  utterances  ;  and  His  own  teaching,  which  we  have 
here  reviewed,  has  shown  us  that  a  greater  blessing 
comes  to  us  by  Him  than  even  that  teaching  itself. 
Greater  than  the  gift  of  His  words  is  the  gift  of  the 
divine  life  which  we  have  through  communion  with 
Him ;  and  the  assurance  descends  to  us  from  the 
throne  to  which  He  has  been  exalted,  *•  Because  I  live, 
ye  shall  live  also," 


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